% 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 



/ 



I have read a portion of the work of the Rev. Hermann Bokum, 
now in press, and I know it to be a correct delineation of the 
resources of this State. I wish Mr. Bokum success in his efforts, 
now continued for years, to draw into the State of Tennessee a 
good immigrant population. 

W. G. BROWNLOW, 

Governor of Tennessee, 



Mr. Bokum has been most active and zealous in his eiforts to 
obtain information as to the resources of Tennessee, and in my 
opinion has been quite successful. I have seen much of his pro- 
posed book in manuscript, and feel sure it will be of great value in 
calling the attention of immigrants to our State. 

A. J. FLETCHER, 

Secretary of State. 



^^ 






\ 




JUL 



THE 



TENNESSEE HAND-BOOK 



AND 



IMMIGRANT'S GUIDE: 



GIVINa A DESCBIPTION OP 



THE STATE OF TENNESSEE; 

ITS AGRICULTURAL AND MINERALOGICAL CHARACTER; ITS "WATER- 
POWER, TIMBER, SOIL, AND CLIMATE; ITS VARIOUS RAILROAD 
LINES, COMPLETED, IN PROGRESS, AND PROJECTED ; ITS ADAP- 
TATION FOR STOCK-RAISING, GRAPE CULTURE, ETC., ETC. 

WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE SUBJECT OF IMMIGRATION. 



BY 



^ 



HEEMAlsrH" BOKTJM. 



Commissioner of Immigration. 




PHILADELPHIA-: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., PUBLISHERS, 

713 aud 717 Market Street, 

1868. 






f^-^s 



"Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by 

ANNA R. S. BOKUM, 

In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court for the Eastern District of 

Pennsylvania. 



KINO & BAIRD, 

PRINTERS AND STERE0TTPER3, 

607 SANSOM STREET, 

PHILADELPHIA. 



^ 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The Situation and Conformation of Tennessee 5 

Political Division of Tennessee into East, Middle and West. . 6 

I. — East Tennessee 6 

General Outline 6 

1. The Counties of East Tennessee 15 

2. Description of the Counties 15 

8. Minerals 48 

4. Forests and Game 49 

5. Summary of Kailroads .*....,. 50 

6. Fruit 51 

" 7. Average Value of Land 51 

8. Names of well-informed Men in each County 53 

9. Concluding Kemarks 54 

II.---MIDDLE Tennessee 55 

General Outline > 55 

1. The Counties of Middle Tennessee 60 

2. Remarks 80 

Average Value of Land '. 80 

Tabular Statement of the "Weather 81 

The Temperature of JSIiddle Tennessee 82 

m. — West Tennessee 83 

General Outline 83 

1. The Counties of West Tennessee 86 

2. Average Value of Land 98 

Summary of the Three Sections. . , > 98 

1. Rivers 98 

2. Climate 100 

8. Manufactures 101 

4. Agriculture 105 

5. Security of Life and Property 107 

6. The Character of the People 108 

7. Immigration — Colonies I *. . 109 

(1) 



2 Contents. 

PAGE 

8. Minerals Ill 

9. Table of Railroads in tlie State 115 

10. The harmonious development of the State a basis of its 

prosperity 117 

11. Education 123 

13. Eeligion 125 

13. Immigration and the Colored Population 126 

14. Library 127 

15. Public Institutions 127 

16. Titles 127 

17. Government 127 

18. The General Assembly and the State Board of Immi- 

gration 128 

An Act to Encourage Immigration 130 

Address to the People of Tennessee 133 

Form of Constitution 136 

Questions 136 

Address of the State Board. , 137 

19. Statistical Summary for 1860 143 

Table of Improved and Unimproved Lands 144 

20. Prices in Knoxville in 1868 147 

21. Grape Culture 147 

32. The Treatment of Immigrants ". 151 

23. Immigrant Routes of "Travel 151 

24. Now is the Time to Buy . . . .4^ 152 

35. Immigration and the Press 153 

26. An Invitation 153 

Appendix '. 155 

A Vindication of our Credit abroad 155 

Extract from the Address of the Hon. O. P. Temple 157 

Correspondence with Associations and Individuals 161 

The Credit of the State once more 161 



INTRODUCTION 



During my residence in the Nortli, from 1862 to 
1867, I held for more than a year a position in the 
Bureau of Immigration in the State Department at 
Washington. The knowledge I obtained on the sub- 
ject of Immigration, while holding that position, filled 
me with a strong wish to direct a portion of this Im- 
migration to the State of Tennessee. Yet while other 
States published and circulated, in this country and 
in Europe, accounts of their resources in different 
languages, and obtained large accessions to their 
population, the political condition of Tennessee left no 
room for such efforts. 

Now, however, the time seems to have come for 
Tennessee to take her place among the other States in 
this respect, and I place the following pages before 
the public, in the confident hope that they will con- 
tribute to prepare the way for such action as the 
importance of the subject calls for. Instead of the 
almost exclusive attention to agriculture, which has 

prevailed in the South for so many years, there is now 

(3) 



4 Introduction. 

felt a general desire tliat there sliould be a "harmonious 
development of its resources. In consequence of it, 
immigration, wMcli in former times was regarded by 
many with indifference or dislike^ is now greatly 
desired. 

I have dwelt especially on those portions of the 
State where a partial development of its resources 
holds out to the immigrant special advantages. In 
stating the latter I Lave endeavored to exercise great 
caution, in order to avoid disappointment. 

I am under great obligations to His Excellency the 
Grovernor, and to the Honorable Secretary of State, on 
account of their interceding in my behalf with the 
Presidents of the railroads of the State, and to these 
Presidents for the kindness they have shown me. I 
also desire to acknowledge the very great benefit 
•which I have derived from the publications of Pro- 
fessor Safibrd, late Geologist of the State. 

HERMANN BOKUM. 

NiSHviLLB, February 1, 1868. 



THE SITUATION AND CONFORMATION OF 

TENNESSEE. 

The United States of America are embraced in tliat 
vast region of country which commences at the great 
lakes on the borders of Canada, and which slopes 
gently to the borders of the equator. Two long 
chains of mountains, the Alleghany and the Rocky, 
divide this region from one extreme to the other, and 
between them lies the valley of the Mississippi. Of 
this valley De Tocqueville has said, that it is, upon the 
whole, the most magnificent dwelling-place prepared 
by God for man's abode. Tennessee is situated in the 
southern region of the slope just mentioned, and as, 
with a very slight exception, her rivers finally flow 
into the Mississippi, it belongs in this respect to that 
valley. 

Tennessee is one of the most central of the United 
States ; it is bounded on the east by North Carolina ; 
on the north by Kentucky and by a small portion of 
Virginia ; on the west by Missouri and Arkansas ; 
on the south by Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. 
It is four hundred and thirty miles in length, and one 
hundred and ten miles in breadth. Its southern line 
of latitude is 35°, its northern 36° 36'. It has 45,600 
square miles, and 1,109,84:1 inhabitants. 

(5) 



6 'J^he T^ennessee Hand-Book, 

Tennessee is divided into East, Middle and West 
Tennessee. The peculiarities of each, of these divi- 
sions are partly owing to their physical conformation. 
The State may be jnstly regarded as an inclined plane, 
on which the Unaka and Cumberland mountains ^re 
resting, and. beneath which are the depressed sections 
of Middle Tennessee and the river beds. The differ- 
ence of elevation between the eastern and western 
portion amounts to one thousand feet. About two- 
fifths of this fall is made in reaching Knoxville, and 
two-fifths at reaching Nashville, one-fifth only being 
left for the remaining distance. It is owing to this 
peculiar conformation that East Tennessee and the 
adjoining counties of Middle Tennessee, with their 
mountains and rapidly -flowing streams, form a great 
contrast with the central portion of Middle and with 
West Tennessee. The products of East Tennessee 
-and of the adjoining counties of Middle Tennessee 
are principally those of the Northwest, while the cen- 
tral portion of Middle Tennessee and West Tennessee 
partake of the character of the Southern States. 

I. 

EAST TENNESSEE. 

East Tennessee but a few years ago was cut off from 
the world; the~ goods which she needed had to be 
hauled over the mountains hundreds of miles, and 
while other parts of the country were making intel- 
lectual progress. East Tennessee, in consequence of 
her seclusion, had to stay behind. The railroads 
which, in the course of time, were constructed, opened 



East 'Tennessee, 7 

access to East Tennessee, and there was a gradual 
change taking place. Other parts of the country ob- 
tained some knowledge of East Tennessee ; they heard 
of its minerals, of its magnificent valleys, of its glori- 
ous mountains, of its splendid water-power, of its pure 
atmosphere ; but the change was very gradual, and 
there were still many things which prevented capital 
and labor from finding its way to East Tennessee. Then 
came the war. The ruin which it produced in East 
Tennessee was terrible, yet, by the overruling power 
of God, it was not without its blessings. It swept 
away the institution of slavery, it afforded an oppor- 
tunity to the people of the North to mingle with the 
people of East Tennessee, and to the latter to visit 
many parts of the North : and it gradually placed the 
people of East Tennessee, in consequence of their un- 
bending loyalty, in a position of great influence in the 
direction of the affairs of the State. Thanks to the 
manner in which this influence has been used, the 
finances of the State are being re-established, life and 
property are everywhere secure, public schools are to 
be introduced in every part of the State, and many of 
those whose minds have been directed to the resources 
of East Tennessee, are now inquiring what these re- 
sources are, and how they can aid in their develop- 
ment. 

I propose very briefly to furnish an answer to these 
inquiries. 

East Tennessee embraces that portion of the Unaka 
chain of mountains which belongs to Tennessee, the 
valley situated between the Unaka chain and the Cum- 
berland mountains, and a portion of the latter. I shall 



8 ^he 'J'ennessee Hand-Book, 

speak successively of these three divisions, so plainly 
marked ont by nature. 

As Uniha in the Cherokee means white^ the Unaka 
mountains may owe their name to the fact that in 
winter they are frequently capped with snow, and in 
summer with white clouds. This chain of mountains 
is from two to six thousand feet high. On account of 
these mountains, East Tennessee has been called the 
Switzerland of America. As in Switzerland, these 
mountains have an elevation where the pastures and 
the .game are the principal wealth of the mountaineer, 
and, like Switzerland, the air of these mountains is 
pure and salubrious, but there, in a great measure, the 
comparison ceases to hold. While the summits of 
Switzerland present the spectacle of the majestic but 
desolate regions of eternal ice and snow, where the 
stirring scenes of life give place to the silence of death, 
the higher summits of the Unaka chain having a tem- 
perature corresponding to that of Montreal, in Canada, 
are covered with snow, on an average, only from two 
to three months of the year, and have a soil sufficiently 
good, at least, to produce not only ferns and wild grass, 
but also a variety of berries, the strawberry included. 
A portion of the mountain sides is already covered 
with cultivated grasses. The facilities for fattening 
stock, which even now are great, could be increased 
in the same measure as the culture of the grasses is 
extended. To the lover of nature these mountains 
present great attractions. Many of these treeless sum- 
mits are continuous, admitting at times of a walk for 
a mile or two, with North Carolina, far below, on one 
side, and Tennessee on the other, while a green ocean of 



East Tennessee, 9 

mountains arises in tremendous billows immediately 
around. The clouds, in which, these mountains are 
often buried, supply with water the ice-cold springs 
which flow forth on the edge of their summits^ and 
which aptly illustrate the passage : " He sendeth 
springs into the valleys which run among the hills." 
Below them the streams of these mountains add to the 
beauty of the scenery by their roaring rapids and 
wild cas(Tades. They abound in trout, as the forests of 
tliese mountains do in game. 

The difference in the vegetation of these mountains 
at different heights is owing to a difference of soil 
rather than climate. Leaving the heavy forests of the 
slopes below, the oak, the beech, the spruce and many 
other trees diminish in size, and low groves of stinted 
beeches, maples, birches and patches of balsam take 
their place; at last these groves also disappear, and 
tbe treeless summit spreads out in full view ; a change 
of vegetation to which the ascent from the coast of 
Pamphilia to the central table-land of Asia Minor, 
which St. Paul made on his way from Perga to An- 
tioch in Pisidia, bears a striking parallel ; in his case 
the forests of oak were succeeded by the scattered 
patches of the cedar juniper, until the treeless plains 
of the interior were reached. 

On many of the mountain sides, and even on some 
of the less elevated summits, farms are found in a high 
state of cultivation. 

The area between the Unaka and the Cumberland 
chain of mountains, though abounding in ridges and' 
in valleys, which more or less run parallel with these 
ridges, is still justly called The Yalley of East Ten 



lo ^he T^emiessee Hand-Book. 

nessee^ since these ridges are not so "high as to take away 
the idea of depression which belongs to the whole of 
this area. Included in it is a class of valleys to which 
the name of " coves " has been applied. Encircled by 
mountains with but a narrow space of access, their 
name has been obviously suggested by the coves in 
the sea-shore to which they bear some resemblance. 
The valley of East Tennessee is two hundred and forty- 
two miles in length. In its northern part it has a width 
of about fifty -five miles. Towards its southern part 
the mountains converge and reduce its width to about 
thirty-four miles. The mean annual temperature of 
Knoxville, which is near the centre of the valley, is 
about 57°. It is at least two degrees less in the upper 
part of the valley, and near the Georgia line it is much 
greater. The summer mean at Knoxville has been 
placed at 73° 6', and is about that of Philadelphia. 
Protected by the high mountain chains in the east 
from the hot sultry winds of the south, and by the 
Cumberland mountains from the raw piercing prairie 
winds of the northwest, and elevated nine hundred 
feet above the ocean, the valley of East Tennessee is 
favored with a calm and habitually transparent atmos- 
phere ; the winters are short, but sufficiently cold to 
invigorate the system ; the summers are remarkable 
for the cooling breezes which spring up often at the 
time of the greatest heat; the nights admit of refreshing 
sleep ; the autumns are magnificent, and often extend 
to the middle of December. 

East Tennessee is highly favored on account of its 
rivers and streams, and the immense water-power 
which they afford. The Holston river runs through 



East 'Tennessee, ii 

the centre of the valley of East Tennessee, assuming 
tlie name of " Tennessee " when about half through it. 
Auxiliary streams flowing down from the Blue Eidge, 
and breaking through the various chains which bound 
East Tennessee, in narrow and deep gorges hasten from 
the east to mingle their waters with the Holston or 
Tennessee, while others flow to the same river from 
the west. "With such an accumulation of force the 
Tennessee encounters the Cumberland mountains near 
Chattanooga, breaks through one of the ridges, and 
turns into the State of Alabama. It is owing to the 
rapid descent of many of the auxiliaries of the Hol- 
ston or Tennessee, that East Tennessee so. greatly 
abounds in opportunities for mills and manufactures. 

The abundant irrigation derived from these streams 
has given the valley of East Tennessee a high reputation 
for its breadstuffs and its live stock. Corn and wheat 
and the grains requiring a similar climate are most 
remunerative. Cotton is cultivated to some extent, but 
in general it is found more profitable to obtain it from 
Middle and West Tennessee. Sorghum is successfully 
cultivated, and furnishes in many a cottage an impor- 
tant item in the simple fare of its inmates, while the 
maple tree supplies them with sugar. By far too much 
grain is manufactured into whiskey. Bast Tennessee 
is highly favored in the growing of fruit, though the 
cultivation of the better kinds of apples, pears, peaches 
and cherries is yet limited. In 1866, the abundant 
fruit-harvest opened the way for the breadstuffs, which 
the effect of the war had made it impossible to raise, 
and without which there would have been wide-spread 
suffering. The late frosts of April are fraught with 



12 '^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

danger, yet on the mountain sides of the Unaka chain 
and of the Cumberland mountains, as well as on the 
sloping banks of rivers, the peach seldom fails, and 
there also the grape may be most successfully culti- 
vated. In the valley; the late apples are sure to suc- 
ceed, and on that account deserve special attention. 

In the raising of mules, Tennessee surpasses the 
other States of the Union, and East Tennessee, before 
the war, raised more than Middle and West Tennessee. 
Together with Kentucky, she supplied South Carolina 
with the hogs that State stood in need of. Much atten- 
tion is also paid to the raising of horses and of cattle. 
There are in East Tennessee hundreds of flocks of 
sheep, and wool-growing is much attended to. It is a 
fact worthy of note, that of whatever losses during the 
late war the contending armies might make light, they 
never made light of the loss of East Tennessee. Its 
wealth in grain, in cattle, and in hogs, not less than 
its mineral resources, were highly appreciated on either 
side, and Chickamauga, Missionary Eidge, Lookout 
mountain, the assaults of Lbngstreet on Knoxville, and 
the sturdy defence of General Burnside, show how 
highly they were esteemed. 

In giving a brief description of the table-land of 
East Tennessee, which at some points is forty miles 
wide, and might furnish on its level summit a highway 
from Kentucky to Alabama, I shall, in part, anticipate / 
my description of Middle Tennessee, as a great portion 
of it is within the limits of the latter. 

There is but little difference between "the climate of 
the valley and the table-land of East Tennessee. On 
the whole, the ground of the table-land is inferior to 



East 1'ennessee, 13 

that of tLe valley, but if it produces less of corn it is 
more highly adapted for grazing purposes. There 
are thousands of acres found there of natuml meado^vs 
where horses, cattle and hogs need only the attention 
of the farmer during the few days while snow is on 
the ground. Cattle brought here in the spring are 
fat in the fall, and ready for the market. 

The vast mineral wealth of these mountains, like, 
that of the Unaka chain,- is almost entirely undeveloped. 
You may be told that in Johnson county, before the 
war, some fifteen forges were at work, and similar 
accounts may be given you with regard to other coun- 
ties ; but in comparison with the vast treasures within, 
the sounds of these forges are but as a faint voice 
coming from these mountains, and inviting him who 
hears them to take possession. 

Chalybeate, sulphur, and other mineral springs are 
found in East Tennessee. Many of them have proved 
efficacious in curing diseases, and would, no doubt, 
attract yqtj general attention if their merits were, 
properly brought to the knowledge of the public. 

It is now nearly two years since I published a pam- 
phlet on the subject of East Tennessee, in which I 
said that in the same measure as a knowledge of the 
resources of East Tennessee would be spread abroad, 
and as the railroad connection between the Middle 
States and East Tennessee would become more close, 
the time would come when, by the impulse which the 
introduction of free labor must give to this region, 
these vast mineral treasures would be brought to 
light ; when the streams which now flow down these 

mountains in idle beauty would be made to turn the 

2 



14 T^he l^ennessee Hand-Book, 

wheels of numberless manufactories, while the gener- 
ous fruit of the vine would cover these mountain sides; 
when cities, towns, and villages would be linked to 
each other by the common interests of commercial 
enterprise ; when schools, and churches, anct the labors 
of a faithful ministry would be multiplied, and when 
the population of these mighty mountain fastnesses, 
which so nobly has guarded the interests of the nation, 
would be abundantly increased. 

In examining the description I am about to give of 
the counties of East Tennessee, the reader will find 
that the prospects I have thus held out have, to some 
slight extent, been already realized. 

In now closing these remarks on East Tennessee, I 
cannot but refer to the fact that the beautiful and 
sublime scenery of East Tennessee has furnished ad- 
mirable subjects to the pencil of Mr. James Cameron, 
while the poet also has sung its praises in touching 
and eloquent strains. Not only his countrymen, but 
many who but for a time have lived in East Tennessee, 
are ready to say with him : 

Who knows thee well is sure to love 
Where'er his wandering footsteps rove, 
And backward ever turns to thee 
With fond regretful memory ; 
Feeling his heart impatient burn 
Among thy mountains to return. 



'l^he Counties of East 'Tennessee, 15 

1. 

THE COUNTIES OF EAST TENNESSEE. 

They are : 1. Sullivan ; 2. Carter ; 3. Johnson ; 4 
Washington ; 5. Greene ; 6. Hawkins ; 7. Cocke ; 8 
Jefferson; 9. Grainger; 10. Hancock; 11. Claiborne 
12. Union; 13. Knox; 14. Blount; 15. Sevier; 16 
Eoane ; 17. Anderson ; 18. Campbell ; 19. Morgan 
20. Scott; 21. Monroe; 22. McMinn ; 23. Meigs 
24. Ehea; 25. Bradley; 26. Polk; 27. Hamilton 
28. Marion ; 29. Sequachee ; 30. Bledsoe. 

I shall speak of these thirty counties in the same 
order in which I have here arranged them. 



2. 

DESCEIPTION OF THE COUNTIES. 

In presenting the reader with some particulars con- 
cerning these counties, he may imagine that, map in 
hand, he is travelling with me on the railroad from 
Bristol to Chattanooga. When stating that in any 
particular county land is for sale, I have not mentioned 
the maximum and minimum, or the average price, 
because, from various' reasons, such statements would 
have been altogether indefinite* It must suffice to say 
that, in many cases, mountain lands, good for grazing 
and kindred purposes, can be bought for fifty cents 
per acre ; and that river bottoms, at no great distance 
from a good market, can be bought at from twenty - 
five to fifty dollars. In my statement concerning the 



1 6 'l^he 'I'ennessee Hand-Book, 

productions of the counties of East Tennessee, I Lave 
depended upon the census of 1860, a copy of which is 
added to this volume, though not without a proper 
regard to the great change which has since taken place 
in the condition of the State. 

In entering the State of Tennessee by the Lynch- 
burg and Bristol Eailroad, the traveler finds himself in 

1. Sullivan County. 

Its surface is hilly, and its hills often rise to the 
height of mountains. It is watered by the Holston 
and the "Watauga, and by many creeks which, like 
those two rivers, afford fine opportunities for the 
establishment of manufactories. There is a great deal 
of iron in the county. Mr. Bushong, near Bristol, is 
working a mine which is remarkably rich. The 
county is well adapted to the raising of stock, and 
celebrated on account of its fine horses. It also takes 
a hjggh rank in the raising of sheep and in the pro- 
duction of wool. There are several sulphur springs 
in this county. It is well wooded and much of its 
land is offered for sale at reasonable prices. Blount- 
ville, the county seat, seven miles from Union, a 
station on the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, 
has many educational advantages. 

East of Sullivan county is 

2. Carter County. 

It is mountainous in some parts; in others it is un- 
dulating or hilly. The Watauga and the Doe rivers, 
the Stone, the Buffalo, and many other creeks, furnish 



Description of the Counties, 17 

in this county many fine sites for manufactories. It 
produces the usual grains and roots very abundantly. 
Considering that the improved farms of the county 
occupy only about 83,000 acres, Carter county takes 
a high rank in the producing of Irish potatoes, and in 
that, of buckwheat. It also deserves to be noted for its 
sheep-raising and the manufacture of wool. It ranks 
highest among the counties of East Tennessee in the 
value of its orchard products. It abounds in iron ore 
of a superior quality, equal indeed to the cranberry 
ore in North Carolina, at a short distance from the 
East Tennessee line. The county is well timbered. 
Quite a number of families from the^North have immi- 
grated to this county, and are partly engaged in the 
erection of manufactories.. Elizabethton, the county 
seat; surrounded by beautiful mountain and river 
scenery, is situated seven miles from Carter Depot, on 
the East Tennessee and Virginia Eailroad. It is likely 
that a branch railroad will soon be constructed to the 
North Carolina line, connecting with the East* Ten- 
nessee and Virginia Eailroad at Carter or Johnson's 
Station. 

East of Carter county, and the most northeastern 
county of the State, is 

3. Johnson County. 

In general this county is mountainous, but there are 
in it rich tracts of land. There are many creeks in 
this county adapted to the construction of mills and 
manufactories. Johnson county takes the highest rank 
of all the counties of East Tennessee in raising rye, 



1 8 ^he l^ennessee Hand-Book, 

buckwlieat, and barley. In entering this county from 
Carter, the traveler, in descending a high mountain, 
finds himself in the valley, or, as it is there called, in 
the " Cove" of Shady. This valley is seven mites 
long and three miles wide. It is much higher than 
the valleys of Carter or the other valleys of Johnson 
county, high as they are. It is entirely surrounded 
v/ith mountains, and, partly on that account, is remark- 
able for its coolness during nine months of the year. 
The snow-bird, the true home of which seems to be 
north, is altogether domesticated in this and in simi- 
larly elevated localities. The beauty of the Cove of 
Shady well repays a long ride such as I took when I 
visited it. There are in it two forges. Being encom- 
passed by mountains, and presenting a j^leasant variety 
of fruitful fields and of woodland, you can hardly get 
rid of the impression that you are passing through 
some private domain ; yet there are living in it some 
twenty -five families. 

In Taylorsville, the county seat, numbering some 
250 inhabitants, no whiskey is sold. It is contemplated 
to construct a railroad connecting Taylorsville with 
the Salt Works near Abington, Yirginia. 

Considering that Johnson county has only upwards 
of 25,000 acres of improved farms, it occupies in point 
of productiveness a very fair position. In the course 
of time, however, it is likely to owe a large portion 
of its prosperity to the development of its mineral 
wealth. There are now several forges in operation. 

West of Carter county, and on either side of the 
East Tennessee and Yirginia Eailroad, is 



Description of the Counties, 19 

4. Washington County. 

It is in different parts hilly, mountainous, and level. 
It» is watered by the Watauga and the Nolachucky, 
and by many creeks. In a region of country where 
water-power so greatly abounds, the ISTolachucky de- 
serves to be specially noticed. For many miles it has 
a natural adaptation for the construction of mills and 
manufactories. With the exception of the Embreville 
iron works, some eight miles from Jonesboro', and a 
few mills, no benefit is derived from this water-power. 
The working of the iron ore in this county, which is 
known to be of fine quality and very abundant, will, 
in the course of time, greatly add to its prosperity and 
wealth. There is some copper ore in the county 
which is now being tested. Eich bottom and fine 
mountain lands, within easy reach of the railroad, are 
offered for sale at very reasonable terms. Next to 
Carter county, Washington ranks highest among the 
counties of East Tennessee with regard to the value 
of its orchard products. Before the war it was much 
noted for the number of its milch cows, and the pro- 
duction of butter. The beautiful views of the Bald 
mountain, situated partly in Washington county and 
partly in North Carolina, attract many visitors. The 
town of Jonesboro' will be much benefited by a turn- 
pike road to North Carolina, the construction of which 
is now in contemplation. Washington county is noted 
for the number of its flour -mills, and the excellent 
flour it produces. 



20 ^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book. 

West of WasTiington county is 

5. Greene County. 

■ The surface of this county is hilly in part, and in 
part mountainous ; in a portion of the county the soil is 
indifferent ; there are, however, large tracts, and espe- 
cially the bottom-lands of the Nolachucky, of the 
Little Chucky, and of Lick and other creeks, which 
are exceedingly fruitful. It has more acres of land 
improved in farms than any other county in East Ten- 
nessee. It was noted before the war on account of the 
number of its horses, its milch cows, and for its butter 
and its cheese, and it ranked high in the production of 
hay, of cloverseed, of flaxseed, and of flax, as also in 
the production of the grains and of sweet potatoes. 
The county also numbered many herds of swine and 
of sheep, and stood high in the production of wool. 
The great wealth of the county is likely to consist in 
its iron ore. The works of the New York and East 
Tennessee Iron Company, in charge of A. A. Talmage, 
Esq., are situated eleven miles from Greenville. The 
ore of the bank in which this company owns an in- 
terest is exceedingly rich. It is a brown hematite 
containing a large portion of manganese, and on that 
account commanding a better price in the market than 
the ordinary iron. The Legislature has granted a 
charter and also ten thousand dollars per mile for 
building a railroad from Grreenville to the Paint Eock, 
where it will connect with the North Carolina Railroad 
and form communication by that route with the sea- 
board. This branch railroad will pass directly in 
front of the furnace of the Company. Another com- 



Description of the Counties, 21 

pany is erecting a farnace two miles furtlier east. It 
will be in operation before next spring and will' manu- 
facture the same kind of iron. It is by such develop- 
ments that inducements are held out to capitalists, and 
that immigration is attracted — a mining and manufac- 
turing population guaranteeing to the farming popula- 
tion, which it draws around it, the market which the 
latter needs. 

The county seat, Greenville, is situated on the East 
Tennessee and Virginia Eailroad, in the midst of beau- 
tiful mountain scenery. 

Near Greenville is Tusculum, a collegiate institution 
under the auspices of the 0. 3. Presbyterian Church. 

North of Greene county, and bordering on Yir- 
ginia, is 

6. Hawkins County. 

The conformation of Hawkins county is peculiar. 
There ar@ in this county several ridges of mountains, 
more or less elevated, but a large portion of the county 
consists of valleys, the one running parallel with the 
other. These valleys are remarkable for their fruitful 
soil. Before the war Hawkins ranked high as a sheep- 
raising and wool-producing county. Iron is found in 
some parts of the county, and in others there are indi- 
cations of coal. A salt- well is worked with well- 
founded hopes of success. There are several sulphur 
springs in the county; one of them, about five miles 
from Eogersville, is thought to be superior to the 
White Sulphur Springs in Virginia. There are also 
chalybeate and alum springs; an attempt made to 
obtain coal-oil is likely to meet with success. Veins 



22 l^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

of a marble wMcTi, in many respects, is superior to 
any in the world, extend fifty miles from one end of 
tlie county to the other, running parallel with the rich 
bottoms of the Holston and crossing it twice. There 
is a marble quarry six miles and another ten miles 
from Eogersville ; the latter is near the Holston river ; 
both these quarries were worked before the war. The 
quarry" four miles from Eogersville was worked by 
Orville Eice, Esq. " Mr. Eice" — I quote from the ' Ee- 
connoissance' of Professor Saffbrd — " sent a block of the 
light mottled strawberry variety to the Washington 
Monument. This was called the 'Hawkins County 
Block,' and bears the inscription, 'From Hawkins 
county, Tennessee.' Another block of one of the 
finest varieties already described was sent, by Act of 
Legislature, which was called the ' State Block.' " "With 
the quarry of Mr. Eice there was connected a small 
mill, so that but little marble was sent off in its rude 
state. The quarry ten miles from Eogersville furnished 
the marble for the State capitols of Ohio, of South 
Carolina, and for the National Capitol. The marble 
from this point ^an be sent in flat-boats to Chattanooga, 
there to be shipped to the Korth, while that which is 
obtained six miles from Eogersville can be transported 
from that town on the branch road which connects 
Eogersville with the East Tennessee and Yirginia 
Railroad at Eogersville Junction. 

Eogersville, the county seat of Hawkins county, 
before the -war was noted for its literary institutions. 
The male academy, imparting a business as well as 
classical education, is now carried on by Mr. A. W. 
Maine with marked success. Measures are being taken 



Description of the Counties, aj 

to make the female academy extensively useful. On 
the Holston river, and on several of the creeks flowing 
into it, there is a good deal of water-power. Farm 
lands and town lots of every kind are offered in this 
county for sale at reasonable prices. 

Southwest of Hawkins county, and also bordering 
on Yirginia, is 

7. Cocke County. 

The southern part of Cocke county consists, in a 
great measure, of mountains embracing the highest 
summits of the Unaka chain. It bears in this county 
the local name of the " Smoky." The central portion 
of the county consists of rolling rich land. A pecu- 
liar feature of the county are the Chucky knobs; they 
^re ten miles long and five miles wide, and have the 
appearance of potato-hills; the north side of each 
knob is rich, the south side poor. There is in the 
county a German settlement called the Grass country, 
because there the grasses are more cultivated than in 
any other part of the county. Before the war Cocke 
county ranked very high on account of its milch 
cows and the butter it produced. 

A rich farm of one thousand acres, called "The 
Bend of Chucky," is also deserving of special attention. 
The county is watered by the Nolachucky, the French 
Broad, the Big Pigeon, and many creeks, along which 
there are not only fruitful valleys but many excellent 
sites for mills and manufactories. The breadstuffs and 
the roots cultivated in this county succeed well; so 
also does the fruit. There is plenty of iron ore in the 
county, but it is little worked; there are also in it 
nitro-chalybeate and sulphur springs. 



24 Tihe 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

The Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap and Charleston 
railroad now reaches the point where the Big Pigeon 
enters the French Broad ; there a depot will be erected, 
and the county seat, now at Newport, will be moved 
to it. I know few counties in East Tennessee which 
more deserve the attention of the capitalist or the 
immigrant than Cocke county. 

Northwest of Cocke county is 

8. Jefferson County. 

It possesses fruitful lands and great mineral wealth. 
Its rivers and creeks are remarkable for their rich 
bottoms, as well as for the abundant water-power 
which they afford. Bounded on the west by a some- 
what elevated ridge, called the Bays' Mountain, and 
on the east by the uplands along the Holston, there is 
a valley forty miles long, and from three to four miles 
wide, of great fruitfulness. In it and along the rail- 
road which passes through it are the towns of New 
Market, Mossy Creek, Morristown, and Eussellville. 
Before the war Jefferson county was noted for the 
number of its horses and mules, its herds of swine and 
its flocks of sheep, as well as for the large quantity of 
wool it produced ; it ranked high also as a wheat-pro- 
ducing county, and, all things considered, highest in 
the raising of corn. Mossy Creek lies on the creek 
from which it derives its name. This creek is four 
and a half miles long ; there are on it now some eight 
manufactories and mills, yet but a small portion of «its 
water-power has been brought into use. Within the 
distance of two and a half miles there are flowing into 
this creek eight large springs. Unlike other creeks 



Description of the Counties. 25 

wliich, in the rainy season^ rise very Mgli, and occasion 
great destruction, this creek rises hardly two-feet above 
its usual height. The zinc establishment of the East 
Tennessee Zinc Company has been started under very 
favorable circumstances. It is one out of four now 
existing in the United States, and promises to be as 
large as any of them. The zinc ore which supplies 
this company is from five to six feet thick. In this 
establishment the Turbine wheel has been introduced. 
It would be well if, in the upper counties of East Ten- 
nessee, this wheel had been used in the new structures 
which have been erected, as it would have been the 
means of placing them beyond, the reach of any future 
flood. 

The East Tennessee Zinc Company expects to make, 
this year, two thousand ^yq hundred pounds of the 
oxide of zinc, and next year five thousand pounds. 
In the mean time spelter works will be erected for the 
making oi zinc out of the ore. The introduction of 
a large German agricultural population would help to 
provide food for the manufacturing population in this 
region, and would be benefited in their turn by having 
a ready market at their very doors. Nolachucky, the 
French Broad, and many creeks, have rich bottoms 
and great water-power. The agent of this company 
at Mossy Creek is Mr. William S. Sizer. Besides zinc, 
iron and other minerals, no doubt, exist in this county, 
but have not yet been sufficiently tested.* 



* Wliile at Mossy Creek, I liad the pleasure of visiting Judge 
Peck, who, though far advanced in life, is still -warmly interested 
in the development of the resources of Tennessee. He will 

3 



i6 ^he 'J'ennessee Hand-Book, 

Dandridge, fhe county seat, is a town of about nine 
hundred inhabitants, on the French Broad. 

The Cincinnati; Cumberland Gap and Charleston 
Railroad will, when completed, greatly increase the 
facilities for travel and transportation. Morristown, 
on the junction of this and the East Tennessee and 
Virginia Railroad, has around it a region of country 
highly favorable for farming purposes, especially the 
rich bottoms in the bend of the Nolachucky, 

North of Jefferson county is 

9. Grainger County, 

Grainger county is one of the counties the resources 
of which are likely to be speedily developed, in con- 
sequence of the construction of the Cincinnati, Cum- 
berland Gap and Charleston Railroad. Many of its 
fertile lands being thus placed within easy reach of a 
market, they have a strong claim upon the attention 
of the immigrant. Grainger county is divided from 
Jefferson county partly by the East Tennessee and 
Yirginia Railroad, and partly by the Holston. Morris- 
town belongs, in part, to Grainger county. 

Grainger county, before the war, produced abun- 
dantly the usual grains, grasses and roots, as well as a 
considerable quantity of butter. It is rich in chaly- 
beate springs ; Tate and Lea springs enjoy an exten- 
sive and well-deserved reputation. 



sliortly send his fine assortment of minerals, principally collected 
by liimself, to the city of New York, in order to have them 
tested. 



Description of the Counties, 27 

Nortbieast of Grainger county is 

10. Hancock County. 

Like Carter and some other counties, Hancock 
county has but between thirty and forty tl^ousand 
acres of improved land. Hancock county is moun- 
tainous, but on the banks of the Clinch river and of 
the creeks which flow into it, it has fine river bottoms. 
From the census of 1860, it appears that its produc- 
tions occupied a fair place. 

North of Grainger is 

11. Claiborne County. 

The bottoms of Clinch and Powell's rivers are re- 
markable for their fertility. The northern portion of 
the county is very mountainous. Cumberland Gap is 
in this county. Claiborne county is likely to be greatly 
benefited by the construction of the Cincinnati, 
Cumberland Gap and Charleston Eailroad. Before 
the war, it ranked especially high in the production 
of hay and flax. It also raised a great number of 
swine. There are two forges in operation. 

Southwest of Claiborne is 

12. Union County. 

Like Carter and Hancock counties, Union county has 
only between thirty and forty thousand acres of im- 
proved farming lands. Its productiveness must be 
estimated accordingly. Before the war it stood fair 
as a wheat and corn-producing county, as well as on 



28 The 'deftness ee Hand-Book, 

account of the number of its milcli cows and tlie but 
ter it made. It was also noted on account of its sheep 
and the wool it manufactured. Though there is fr? 
railroad passing through Union county, its inhabitatn.a 
have ready access to the markets which their products 
call for. The Clinch river flows through it. 

West of Jefferson county is 

13. Knox County. 

It is hilly in some parts, but in general presents the 
picture 'of a fine, rolling country. It is watered by 
the Holston and by many creeks, and has fine bottom- 
lands. In 1860, it far surpassed all other counties of 
East Tennessee in the value of its market-garden pro- 
ducts, and in the wine which it made. It also ranked 
high in the production of hay, clover-seed and of bees- 
wax, of horses, milch cows, and swine, as well as of 
wheat, corn, and Irish potatoes. There are many veins 
of white and variegated marble in this county. Be- 
fore the war, some of these were somewhat extensively 
worked. A quarry, a few miles from Knoxville^ fur- 
nished the variegated marble of the capitol at Nash- 
ville. 

The county seat of Knox county is Knoxville, situ- 
ated at the head of navigation on the Holston river, 
and on the terminus of the East Tennessee and Yir- 
ginia and the East Tennessee and Georgia Kailroads. 
This city presents a striking proof of the general 
progress which the people of East Tennessee are 
making, and which it partly owes to the peculiar ad- 
vantages of its situation. In the language of an able 



Description of the Counties, 29 

writer on this subject : " Whether viewed as the centre 
of a rich agricultural region abounding in all the great 
minerals; except gold, and therefore adapted to manu- 
factures ; or as being at the intersection of two lines 
of railroad; one connecting the Atlantic coast with the 
northern lakes, and the other New York with New 
Orleans; or, viewed geographically, as the precise cen- 
tre of East Tennessee, or as the centre of a region 
the circumference of which extends from Lexington to 
Louisville, Nashville, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Lynch- 
burg — her position is a commanding one. There are 
no large, competing towns nearer than from two to 
three hundred miles. With regard to the trade which 
will flow southward from Upper East Tennessee, Yir- 
ginia, and Kentucky, and westward from North Caro- 
lina by way of the French Broad Eailroad, as well as 
northward by the East Tennessee and Greorgia Eailroad, 
Knoxville is the first important town this interior or 
domestic trade will strike; here the merchandise will 
be sold and distributed, and here the producer and 
farmer will find his nearest and therefore best market, 
in which to purchase his supplies and to sell his sur- 
plus. 

"The nearness of Knoxville to the cotton region add& 
also greatly, to its importance. This region must be 
supplied from abroad with most of the articles manu- 
factured from iron ; call to mind the agricultural 
products of this region; too remote from the great ex- 
porting markets to be exorbitantly dear, the immense 
water-power at our command; the coal of the best 
quality, which can be sold at fifteen cents per bushel, 
our genial climate and the facilities of railroad inter- 



30 ^he Tennessee Hand-Book, 

course wliicli we enjoy ; and it cannot be bnt evident 
that Knoxville, under the impulse which the abolition 
of slavery has given to this whole region^ will, at no 
distant period, become a populous manufacturing 
centre."^ 

Professor "Waterhouse, in speaking of the danger 
of having certain advantages of trade diverted from 
St. Louis in favor of one of its rivals, expresses the 
fear, lest " the energy of an unlineal competitor may 
usurp the honors of the imperial heir." The extracts 
I have made serve to show, to some extent, what 
Knoxville has done to guard against a similar danger, 
and what yet remains to be done. The inhabitants of 
Knoxville are also engaged in opening for their city 
new avenues of trade, by the construction of turn- 
pikes. The Holston, navigable from seven to eight 
months of the year, contributes considerably to the 
trade of the city. 

The position of Knoxville is well calculated for the- 
establishment of brass-works, since zinc is to be found 
at the distance of thirty miles to the east, and copper 
eight miles to the west ; charcoal can be obtained at 
from four to five cents per bushel ; the working of 
iron is favored by the fact, that the fine iron ore on 
the banks of the Holston river can be easily mixed 
with the iron ore obtained from the mountains; the 
brown hematite being accessible by flat-boats, and the 
red by the Knoxville and Kentucky Eailroad. The 



* These extracts are taken from a series of letters wMcli ap- 
poared in tlie Knoxville Whig. Tlie latter portion of it is quoted 
from memory. 



Dxscripiion of the Counties, 31 

creeks running tbTongh the town have a good deal of 
water-power, some of which is made available. 

Knoxville has about eight thousand inhabitants, 
and among them quite a number of Grerman and Swiss 
families. 

Among the principal business houses I mention 
Cowan & Dickenson, and Cowan, McClung & Co., both 
wholesale dealers in merchandise. Chamberlin, Eich- 
ards & Co. have a rolling-mill, and J. W North & Co. 
a foundry and machine shop. 

The University of East Tennessee was founded in 
1778. During the war the sessions were interrupted, 
and the elevated situation of the institution exposed 
it to the fire of the enemy. The instructions have 
been resumed under the presidency of the Eev. Dr. T. 
W. Humes, assisted by three professors, one of them 
in charge of the preparatory department. Special 
attention will be paid to the thoroughness of instruc- 
tion in- the latter. Endowed by Congress, through 
the State, East Tennessee University has a fund of 
$55,000. Though the University is not connected 
with any particular denomination, the instructions 
upder the auspices of the President are sure to be per- 
vaded by an eminently Christian spirit. 

South of Knox county is 

14. Blount County. 

This county is partly mountainous, partly undulat- 
ing or hilly, and partly level. The Holston separates 
it from Eoane and Knox counties, and the Little Ten- 
nessee from Monroe county; the Little river rises in 



32 ^i'/;<? '^Tennessee Hand-Book, 

the Smoky mountains, and flows tlirough Blount 
county into the Holston. On these rivers and on the 
creeks flowing into them there is a good deal of water- 
power. The county abounds in tracts of land adapted 
to grazing purposes. A peculiar feature in this county 
is the number of caves it contains. At Friendsville 
there is a settlement of Friends and a good school; 
Louisville, a little town on the Holston, has fine oppor- 
tunities for trade ; Rockford has a cotton mill. Mont- 
vale Springs, nine miles from Maryville, and twenty- 
four miles from Knoxville, had been visited by many 
invalids long before the medicinal character of these 
springs became generally known. The Knoxville and 
Charleston Railroad, now under construction, will bring 
these springs within three miles of one of its depots. 
There are two fountains at Montvale; in one of these 
chalybeate characteristics predominate, in the other 
sulphur. From a rock a mile and a quarter from the 
springs, on the summit of the Alleghany, (here^ called 
Ohilhowee,) a fine view is obtained of theOreat Valley 
of Bast Tennessee.* At the springs a large and com- 
modious three-story building has been erected, with 
spacious piazzas on each story, running the entire 
length of the building, so that the invalid may not be 
exposed to inclement weather while he takes his walk. 
Numerous neatly-finished cottages have been built on 
each side of the lawn, easily accessible from the 



* Last summer all the cottages on tlie grounds were filled, 
numbering from three to four hundred persons. The kindness 
of the proprietors, Messrs. White and Whitlock, and the substan- 
tial comforts with which they provide their yisitors, is highly de- 
serving of praise. 



Description of the Counties, ^^ 

springs and from the hotel. Bath-rooms, and all the 
'other conveniences of a summer retreat, have been 
carefully attended to. Three miles from the hotel, on 
the Montvale lands, there is a remarkably fine sulphur 
spring. The dim forests by which the springs are 
surrounded form a striking contrast with the charms 
which culture has thrown around their immediate 
vicinity. 

Maryville, the county seat, has suffered much during 
the war. It is likely to be benefited by the construc- 
tion of the railroad above mentioned, as that road will 
pass through it. 

In Maryville there is a college under the auspices 
of the Kew School Presbyterian church, which, from 
the year 1819, when it was founded, till the breaking 
out of the war, has sent forth over one hundred and 
twenty ministers and a large number of teachers and 
other professional men. During the war the col- 
lege was used for a barn and for soldiers' barracks. 
The institution has once more gone into operation, but 
it stands greatly in need of help. Having maintained 
unflinchingly a loyal, evangelical and liberty-loving 
basis,; and furnishing the means of living and of in- 
, struction on remarkably reasonable terms, it commends 
itself strongly to the attention of those who are able 
to aid it. Professor T L. Lamar is at the head of the 
institution. Within the corporate limits of Maryville 
no liquor is sold. 

I ron is known to exist in abundance in this county, 
but it is worked by only one small forge in Miller's 
Cove. It raises in abundance the usual grains, and 
especially also sweet potatoes. In 1860 it produced 



j4 ^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

a large amoTint of hay and of grass seeds. It also 
deserves to be noticed on account of the high value 
of its live stock. Sheep -raising is carried on suc- 
cessfully. 

Near Friendsville is a vein of superior marble, but 
the prices asked for hauling it to the river, and the 
charge of transportation by railroad; prevent its being 
worked. 

South of Knox county is 

15. Sevier County. 

Though mountainous in part, and rich in minerals, 
it has considerable tracts of fertile soil ; and before the 
war, according to the census of 1860, occupied a fair 
position with regard to its productions. Among the 
points which will richly repay a visit is the Alum 
Cave. I have the authority of Judge Peck in saying, 
that the cave can be reached by starting from Sevier- 
ville, on the clay turnpike road, which is called Miers' 
Koad. About twenty miles from town is the cave, 
and near it a natural curiosity, a hole passing through 
the mountain. The Summit Eoad Gap, near the Alum 
Cave, is 5,314 feet high. 

West of Knox county is 

16. Roane County. 

Eoane county is an agricultural county, though a 
large portion of it is very mountainous, and well adapted 
for grazing purpose. It is watered by the Holston and 
Clinch rivers, and is rich in iron and coal. Before the 
war Eoane county ranked high on account of the num- 



Description of the Counties. ^^ 

ber of its horses^ its milch cows, and its swine, and 
was also noted as a grain-producing county, and as 
being second only to Sullivan county in tlie product 
of tobacco. If tbe Pacific Eailroad should pass through 
this county it would contribute to the development of 
its prod ucts. Kingston, the county seat, is situated on 
the Clinch river, two miles from its mouth. It is 
navigable from seven to eight months of the year. 
There is a cotton mill and spinning factory at Lenoir's, 
a station on the East Tennessee and Georgia Eailroad. 
At Loudon, also on the railroad, there is a fine bridge 
over the Tennessee river. 

Northwest of Knox county is 

17. Anderson County. 

Its northern portion' is mountainous ; near the centre 
it has rich uplands, and along the Clinch river and 
creeks which flow into it there are fine bottom- 
lands. The Knoxville and Kentucky Eailroad, now 
finished several miles beyond Clinton, will run through 
valuable timber land. Thanks to this railroad the 
coal of the Cumberland mountains is now sold in 
Knoxville at from fifteen to twenty cents. If the 
Pacific Eailroad should have its terminus two miles 
from Clinton, on the Knoxville and Kentucky Eail- 
road, it would of course greatly add to this develop- 
ment of the resources of the county. On account 
of the cheapness of the coal, the presence of the red 
hematite, a good deal of water-power and cheap- 
living, large manufactories are likely to be established 
in this county. Clinton, the county seat, is situated 
on the Knoxville and Kentucky Eailroad, and also on 



36 'l^he "Tennessee Hand-Book, 

the liead of navigation of tlie Clincti river, tHs river 
being navigable from seven to eight months of the 
year ; thus the produce which is brought down the 
river on flat-boats or rafts is reloaded on steamboats 
or railroad cars, and finds a ready market. 

North of Anderson county is 



18. Campbell County, 

While the western portion is mountainous, a con- 
siderable area, in the county consists of fine valleys, 
among which Powell's valley deserves special notice, 
being watered by Powell's and other creeks. The 
Knoxville and Kentucky Eailroad crosses the corner 
of Powell's valley; it passes along a very rich though 
narrow valley, producing large quantities of wheat, 
bacon, &g. By it the rich timber of the mountains 
and an abundance of superior coal and iron will be 
reached. The railroad will also run through Elk Creek 
valley, a valley peculiarly adapted for the apple, and 
rich in iron ore ; there is a mass of iron there, sixty 
feet at the base, and twenty feet high, apparently 
heaved up by volcanic action. In this valley the black- 
band ore is found, as also stone and bituminous coal 
free of sulphur, and regular splent coal, good for smelt- 
ing iron ; there is also in this valley fine clay for 
making furnaces, and limestone to flux iron with. Thfe 
railroad is likely to make this mineral wealth accessi- 
'ble within about one year. I went through Elk Creek 
valley in the year 1862. Some of the data here given 
I owe to Thomas H. Callaway, Esq., President of the 
East Tennessee and Georgia Eailroad, who can state 



Description of the Counties. 37 

many other interesting particulars witli regard to this 
valley. 

East of Campbell is ^ 



19. Scott County. 

It is one of the counties situated on the Cumberland 
mountain, and has but upwards of thirteen thousand 
acres of land improved. With the exception of the 
northern border where it is bounded by Kentucky, it 
is accessible by only two roads, one from Campbell 
and the other from Eoane county. The depot at Elk 
Gap, (on the Knoxville and Kentucky Eailroad,) less 
than six miles from the Scott county line, will furnish 
a ready communication between this county and the 
market it needs. Those who purchase land in thi^ and 
several other counties of East Tennessee have to em- 
ploy lawyers, so that they may be certain of obtaining 
good titles. Scott county is highly adapted for graz- 
ing purposes, and the raising of hogs and of sheep. 

South of Scott is 

20. Morgan County. 

Its southern portion is mountainous, but in general 

it is rolling, and has a good deal of fertile land. It 

has only upwards of'seventeen thousand acres of land 

improved in farms. There is a great deal of coal in 

this county. The Knoxville and JSTashville Railroad is 

likely to pass through it, and contribute considerably 

to the development of its resources. Wartburg, a 

settlement of German vine-dressers, is situated on an ele- 

4 



38 The 'Tennessee Hand-Book. 

vated plateau near Montgomery, the county seat. The 
latter is on the Emery river. The census for 1860 
gives two hundred and forty-two gallons as the pro- 
duct of the vineyards at Wartburg, and, I think, needs 
correction in this respect. 

Southeast of Eoane and southwest of Blount is 



21. Monroe County. 

It is a county remarkable for its fertility. The Little 
river separates it from Blount county ; in its southern 
portion at the foot of the mountain chain flows the 
Tellico, and several other creeks, and in the northern 
portion is the valley of Sweetwater, one of the finest 
valleys of East Tennessee. Sweetwater creek flows 
through its whole length. On Tellico creek there have 
been iron works for many years ; the great mineral 
wealth of this county is biit little developed. Lead 
mines were worked in this county to some extent 
during the war, four miles from Sweetwater, but in 
this as in similar cases the remunerative working of 
lead in East Tennessee is yet uncertain. The East 
Tennessee and Georgia Eailroad runs through the 
northern portion of this county. 

Southwest of Monroe county is 

22. McMInn County. 

It is separated from Bradley county in the south- 
west by the Hiwassee. It occupies a high rank as a 
grain-producing county, and, to judge from the census 
of 1860, was noted on account of the number of its 



Description of the Counties. 39 

milcli cows. Athens, the county seat, is situated on 
the East Tennessee and Georgia Eailroad. In this 
town a school of a high order has been established, 
Tinder the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal church. 
Its advantages are placed within the reach of both 
colored and whites. For the accommodation of this 
school a fine building has been purchased. Professor 
Wilson, who speaks the German language quite 
fluently, may be addressed on the subject of that in- 
stitution. Here, as in most of the counties of East 
Tennessee, mineral wealth is not wanting. According 
to Professor Saiiord, the variegated marble, so highly 
valued in the North, is found here. 

Northwest of McMinn county is 

23, Meigs County. 

It is separated from Khea county by the Tennessee 
river. It is one of the counties having but from thirty 
to forty thousand acres of improved land ; a large por- 
tion of this land is very fertile, and Meigs ranks high 
as a grain-producing county. The Tennessee river 
secures to this county a good market during a con- 
siderable portion of the year. In this county the 
Hiwassee flows into the Tennessee. 

Northwest of Meigs county is 

24. Rhea County. 

Like Meigs county, Ehea county is greatly benefited 
by the Tennessee river. Its mountain lands on Wal- 



40 "The Tennessee Hand-Book. 

den's ridge are well adapted for grazing. Ehea county 
is rich in coal and iron. 

Southwest of McMinn county is 

25. Bradley County. 

Bradley county is partly hilly, but mostly level. 
The Hiwassee river flows between McMinn and 
Bradley counties. On the Hiwassee river, and on 
many creeks in the county, there is a great deal of 
water-power. Though a large portion of the land of 
this county is thin, it admits of improvement. Ac- 
cording to the census of 1860, Bradley county far 
surpassed all the other counties of East Tennessee in 
the bushels of grass-seeds which it produced. Cleve- 
land, the county seat, contains about fifteen hundred 
inhabitants, and is situated on the East Tennessee and 
Georgia Eailroad, and on the Cleveland and Chatta- 
nooga Eailroad; it is also the outlet of the mining 
region of Polk county. Before the war there had 
been erected in Cleveland an excellent copper rolling- 
mill, together with wire-works. This establishment 
produced sheets and wire of good quality, but during 
the war it was destroyed. Cleveland, with its wide 
and pleasantly-shaded streets, is the most beautiful 
town in Bast Tennessee. Within the breadth of ten 
miles there are in Bradley county, between the Ten- 
nessee and Hiwassee rivers, six valleys, which are 
remarkably fruitful. 

The lead mines of Che-te-te are said to have proved 
of late very productive. They are owned by Mr. J. 
Mee. 



Description of the Counties, 41 

As there is in Bradley county both capital and 
water-power, we may be encouraged to hope, that 
undei the influence of the spirit of improvement now 
felt throughout East Tennessee, the manufacturing 
interests of this county will not be left out of sight. 

West of Bradley county is 



26. Polk County. 

Polk is one of the mountain counties of the State, 
only one-fourth of it being tillable. It is owing to the 
rich ores of copper contamed in its mountains that 
Polk county is the third tax-paying county in the 
State. The Ducktown mines, Avhence this copper is 
obtained, are situated about forty miles from Cleve- 
land, a station on the East Tennessee and Yirginia 
Eailroad. They can be reached from that town by 
conveyances which run with a good deal of regularity. 
I myself went to them on horseback. The road 
crosses the Ocoee river, thirteen miles from Cleveland, 
leaves it for two miles, and then runs along its banks ; 
on the left of it are precipitous mountain sides, ex- 
hibiting a great variety of strata, and on the right the 
Ocoee river dashing along with great rapidity. Its 
fall from one end of the river to the other is three 
hundred feet. At mid-day I fell in with a number of 
mountaineers, who invited me to a dinner of venison. 
The dinner was prepared by the roadside, and it was 
partaken of in the manner of the ancients, by lying 
down. I seldom have eaten a meal I enjoyed more. 

The appearance of the area comprised by the Duck- 
town mines, situated about two miles from the Ocoee 



42 The 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

river, reminded me of what I liad seen in the coal 
counties of Pennsylvania. While but for the ore of 
these mines these mountains would be a wilderness, 
they are now dotted with dwellings, which are either 
scattered or grouped in villages. On reaching the 
plateau, about fifteen hundred feet above the sea level, 
on which these works are situated, high ranges of 
mountains appeared in vieAV belonging to the States of 
Georgia and North Carolina, as well as of Tennessee. 
I must refer my reader to the " Eeport of the Bureau 
of Mines for 1866," to find there a minute and highly- 
interesting account of the history of these mines, and 
of the character and the abundance of the ore which 
they are furnishing. I have to confine myself to a 
consideration of the advantages which this region holds 
out to immioTants. 

D 

Directly or indirectly connected with the mines 
there is a population of three thousand souls. The 
provisions needed for their support have, in a great 
measure, to be hauled from a long distance. Within 
from three to four miles from the mines there is tilla- 
ble land, which can be purchased at reasonable terms. 
If occupied by industrious immigrants, who are ac- 
customed to thorough and economical farming, the 
market of the mining population, at their very door, 
would insure success. The veins of these mines are 
so rich, that for hundreds of years they are certain to 
prove highly productive. The climate is remarkably 
healthy, as is evident from the fact, that within the 
past year about eighty-two births have taken place in 
the mining districts, and only about six or seven 
deaths. Within three miles of that district no whiskey 



jyescription of the Counties. 43 

is allowed to be sold, but no obstacles have been raised 
to the establishing of a brewery. The grape, in a few 
instances, has been successfully cultivated. The few 
Germans who are employed in connection with the 
mines are highly respectable men, and their advice 
will be valuable to any German immigrants who may 
find their way to the mining districts. 

The Eeport of the American Bureau of Mines, for 
1866, to which I have referred, dwells emphatically 
on the importance of completing a railroad between 
Ducktown and Cleveland. After having mentioned 
that, for such a railroad, State aid to the amount of 
half a million has been secured, it goes on to show 
that this railroad would be of importance as a link con- 
necting, as by an air line, the ports of Wilmington, Beau- 
fort, and Charleston, {via the Rabun Gap Road,) with 
the Mississippi, at Memphis — a connection for which 
the aid of the State of North Carolina is pledged — and 
then points to the fact that the construction of a road 
between Cleveland and Ducktown, if connected with 
the North Carolina railroads, would nearly double the 
net earnings of the Ducktown companies. Good bitu- 
minous coal, from Chattanooga, could be delivered at 
the furnaces at low rates. Mining timber and wood 
and charcoal could be cheaply obtained from the 
forests along the Ocoee river ; all mining supplies, and 
especially labor, would find their way to Ducktown 
in abundance and at reasonable prices, while the 
freights of copper there produced would be brought 
to a minimum. 

To these extracts from the Report I can but add 
the earnest desire that the time may soon come when 



44 "^he 1'ennessee Hand-Book, 

confidence in tlie permanent pacification of tlie South- 
ern States shall help to bring about the carrying out 
of this important enterprise. 

There is an abundance of slatC; for roofing, in the 
county, and at a short distance beyond the line mag- 
netic iron. 

There are in Polk county some bottom-lands, and 
on them valuable farms. The water-power of the 
Ocoee river, and its adaptation for the erection of 
manufactories and saw-mills, is highly deserving of 
attention. The fall of the river is estimated at three 
hundred feet. The timber is fine, and is principally 
oak and pine. Polk county is remarkably well 
adapted for grazing purposes, and for the raising of 
sheep. 

On Frog mountain vineyards and orchards have 
been successfully cultivated for many years. 

West of Bradley county is 

27. Hamilton County. 

The mountains of Hamilton county have a national 
celebrity. Among them are Missionary Kidge and " 
Lookout Mountain. They are now again devoted to 
the arts and the enjoyment of peace. Before the war, 
like many other visitors, I was attracted to Lookout 
Mountain by the purity of its atmosphere and the 
magnificent and ever-changing scenes of the vast 
panorama there in view. In 1864, I was drawn to 
this mountain by the interest I felt in the invalids 
who th3n occupied the extensive hospital which had 
been there established by the government. The well- 



Description of the. Counties. 45 

built structures, whicli I then visited, are now cons(3- 
crated to the cause of learning. Mr. C. E. Kobert, of 
New York, the founder and supporter of Eobert' 
College, near Constantinople, Turkey, has there estab- 
lished a first-class Christian school for the purpose of 
furnishing to the masses a thorough substantial loyal 
education. The institution— a boarding-school, de- 
signed for both males and females— opened in May, 
1866, and has since had in it representatives of many 
of the Southern States. Eev. Mr. Bancroft, the prin- 
cipal, is assisted by three teachers. There is a primary 
department connected with the school. Mr. C. C. 
Carpenter, in whose hands is the entire management 
of the institution, outside the departments of instruc- 
tion, will gladly reply to any inquiries which may be 
addressed to him with regard to it. 

Another portion of the mountain has fine accommo- 
dations for the many visitors who are attracted to that 

spot. 

While in some parts of Hamilton county the soil is 
not very good, the bottoms along the Holston river 
and the creeks flowing into it— among these is the 
Chickamauga — are remarkable for their fertility. 
There is a great deal of bituminous coal obtained in 
this county, and there are also encouraging indications 
of iron and lead.' Chattanooga, on the Tennessee river, 
is the terminus of the Kashville and Chattanooga, the 
Western and Atlantic, and the Tennessee and Georgia 
Eailroad; of this latter, through the branch from 
Cleveland to Chattanooga. The Wills Valley Eail- 
road, now under construction, will finally connect Chat- 
tanooga with New Orleans. In consequence of the 



46 ^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

meeting of these railroads, and its ready access to tlie 
coal mines, Chattanooga will always be an important 
manufacturing point. There are now established there 
several rolling mills and foundries, and a large steam 
tannery. For many years the articles made out of 
the tan-bark of this region have commanded high 
prices^ in the Northern markets. Chattanooga is also 
important as a boating point, the boats going up the 
river to Knoxville, or up the Clinch river. The pro- 
posed improvement at the Muscle Shoals will give a 
new impulse to the navigation of the Tennessee. 

Before the war a fine Catawba wine was produced 
in the vicinity of Chattanooga. 

28. Marion County. 

29. Sequatchie County. 

30. Bledsoe County. 

I shall now speak of the counties of Marion, Sequat- 
chie, and Bledsoe connectedly, because they are similar 
in character, the Sequatchie valley, watered by the 
Sequatchie river, forming part of all the three. It is 
enclosed, on the one side, by the Cumberland moun- 
tains, and, on the other, by Walden's ridge. There is 
a branch railroad constructed in Marion county from 
Bridgeport, in Alabama, a station on the Nashville 
and Chattanooga Eailroad, to Jasper, the county seat 
of Marion county, which makes a large portion of the 
coal lands accessible, and highly deserves the atten- 
tion of capitalists. Jasper being at the mouth of the 
Sequatchie valley, there is no doubt that whenever the 



Description of the Counties, 47 

Pacific Eailroad shall have been constr acted, the 
brancli railroad to Jasper will be continued along the 
Sequatchie valley till it connects with the Pacific Eail- 
road near the line of Bledsoe county, in Cumberland 
county, and the mineral and agricultural wealth of 
this magnificent valley will then be fully developed. 

Tracy city, at the head of the branch railroad from 
Cowan to that point, is situated in Marion county; 
three hundred workmen are employed there, and 
five thousand bushels of coal are daily obtained from 
its mines. The large mining population gathered at 
Tracy city secures an excellent market for the farmers 
settled in that region of country. 

From several caves of Marion county, saltpetre was 
obtained during the war. 

Marion county, in proportion to the number of acres 
improved in farms which it contains, (35,120,) occupies 
quite a high rank in point of productiveness. From 
the fact that its mineral as well as agricultural pro- 
ducts find ready access to good markets, its resources 
are likely to be rapidly developed. The ISTashville 
and^ Chattanooga Eailroad, as well as the Tennessee 
river, pass .through the southeastern portions of this 
county. 

Bledsoe county, like Marion county, has between 
thirty and forty thousand acres of improved land, but 
being less accessible to a market than Marion county, 
its inhabitants pay special attention to the raising of 
stock. 

Sequatchie county has sixteen thousand two hundred 
and fifty-five acres of improved land, and, like Bledsoe 
county, is specially devoted to the raising of cattle, of 



48 'The 'Tennessee Hand-Bo ok, 

hogs and of sheep. It thus makes the grain it raises 
far more remunerative than it would be if taken to a 
distant market. 

3. 

MINERALS. 

From the account just given, it is evident that 
while the predominance of slavery greatly delayed the 
working of the minerals of East Tennessee, there is 
now a change going on in favor of such a development 
of its resources as will secure proper attention to its 
mineral wealth. Rich veins of iron ore are found in 
a large number of the counties of East Tennessee; 
copper in abundance in Polk county ; nitre in several 
caves. With regard to coal-beds, I quote what 
Professor Safford says on the subject : "A large por- 
tion of these beds is found within the limits of East 
Tennessee. The coal of good quality, and in beds 
thick enough to be profitably worked, is at least, equal 
in the aggregate to a solid stratum eight feet thick 
and co-extensive with the table-land, and hence equal 
in extent to four thousand four hundred- square miles, 
or, in other words, equal in volume to a solid block of 
coal eight feet high, twenty miles wide and two hun- 
dred and twenty miles long." In many cases the iron 
ore is found contiguous to the coal-beds, which of 
course is highly favorable to the economic manu- 
facture of iron. The capitols at Washington, D. C, 
at Columbus, Ohio, at Nashville, in Tennessee, and at 
Columbia, S. C, owe a great part of their beauty to 
the marble quarries in East Tennessee. 

It is greatly to be desired that mills should be 



Description of the Counties, 49 

constructed near the quarries, in order to make the 
blocks which are to be sent to a distance less bulky. 
The owners of the quarries near KnoxvillC; in Knox 
county, and near Eogersville, in Hawkins county, are 
willing that they should be used for a time by any one 
who will work them. Now, this marble in its rough 
state is used in many parts of East Tennessee for pave- 
ments, culverts, piers of bridges, and the foundations 
of houses. Quarries of very superior stone for build- 
ing are also found in abundance. East Tennessee is 
also rich in lime, marl, zinc, salt, lead, slate (for roof- 
ing), fire clay, hydraulic cement, sand (for the manu- 
facture of glass), and clay (for the manufacture of stone- 
ware), kaoline and asbestus. The gold-fields of North . 
Carolina and Georgia reach over and skirt along the 
southern border of the State of Tennessee. Any de- 
velopment of these gold-fields must have an immediate 
influence on the prosperity of East Tennessee, as their 
main outlet to market is through the Tennessee rail- 
roads. 

4. 

FOEESTS AND GAME. 

Among the forest trees of East Tennessee are the 
white pitch and yellow varieties of the pine, the white 
and yellow poplar, many varieties of the oak, the locust, 
the chestnut, the hickory, the elm, the sycamore, the 
sugar maple, the persimmon, the beach, the birch, the 
walnut, the wild cherry, and many evergreens. The 
forests are rich in game, and the more so now, since 
during the war the game has been little disturbed. 
There are found besides the deer many varieties of 

5 



50 The 'Tennessee Hand-Book. 

the squirrel, tlie rabbit, the mink, the beaver, the pole- 
cat, the wolf, the fox, the opossum, the raccoon, the 
wild-cat, the muskrat and the otter. 

5. 

SUMMARY OF RAILROADS HAYINa SPECIAL 
REFERENCE TO EAST TENNESSEE. 

East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, through Yir- 
ginia to Washington and New York. 

East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad (Dalton branch) 
to Atlanta and the whole railroad system of Georgia. 

East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad, by the way of 
Chattanooga and Wills' valley, (partly done,) through 
the heart of Alabama to Mobile. 

East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad, to Memphis 
and Nashville. 

Knoxville and Kentucky road, (partly done,) to Cin- 
cinnati, Louisville and the Great West. 

Knoxville and Rabun Gap Railroad, (partly done,) 
to Charleston, Augusta and Savannah. 

East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad and Paint 
Rock Railroad to the heart of North Carolina, striking 
her system of railroads. 

Projected Pacific road, (Nashville to Knoxville,) 
opens a direct route to Nashville and St. Louis. 

Branch roads. 

From Bridgeport, Alabama, to Jasper, Marion county, 
Tennessee. * 

From Rogersville Junction, to Rogersville, Hawkins 
county. 

From Cowan, Franklin county, to Tracy city, Marion 
county. 



Description of the Counties, ^i 

6. 

FEUIT. 

The principal fruits grown in East Tennessee are, 
apples, peaches and pears. In the upper counties of 
East Tennessee, various varieties of the cherry are 
found. Improved varieties of these fruits have been 
introduced, but only to a limited extent. The wild 
fruits also deserve to be especially noticed. They are 
cherries, plums, whortleberries, gooseberries, straw- 
berries, raspberries and blackberries. Throughout 
East Tennessee, and especially in the upper counties, 
there is a regular succession in the ripening of the fruit, 
commencing with the strawberry and ending with the 
late apple, so that the table throughout the summer 
and fall is readily and agreeably supplied with it. In 
Johnson, Carter, and other counties reached by the 
Alleghany range of mountains, the cranberry grows 
wild. 

7. 

The following table is only approximately correct. 
The Comptroller, in the course of the report from which 
this table is taken, feels constrained to state that the 
assessment of property as a general thing is a farce. 
According to him nearly one hundred thousand acres 
of land are sometimes not assessed at all in a single 
county, and he therefore recommends that the assess- 
ment of property be removed from the people, and the 
appointment of assessor be taken from the county 
court. The Comptroller thinks that the average value 
of land ought to be rated higher than is done in this 
table : 



52 



'^he 'J^ennessee Hand-Book, 



Table showing the average value of land per acre, in each 
county in East Tennessee, for 1867. 



Counties. 



Value of land 
per acre. 



Anderson .*... $4 56 

Bledsoe 2 13 

Blount 5 81 

Bradley 7 55 

Campbell 2 48 

Carter 4 19 

Claiborne 2 85 

Cocke 4 03 

Granger 7 20 

Greene..... 5 92 

Hamilton 12 06 

Hancock 4 52 

Hawkins 7 35 

Jefferson 10 22 

Johnson 1 75 



Counties. 



Value of land 
per acre. 



Knox $11 62 

McMinn 7 92 

Marion 2 18 

Meigs 7 41 

Monroe 5 64 

Morgan . 82 

Polk 6 72 

Khea 4 67 

Koane 7 58 

Scott 53 

Sevier 1 80 

Sullivan 7 48 

Washington 6 41 

Sequatchie 156 

Ufiion 7 24 



8. 

The following gentlemen are able and ready to fur- 
nish reliable information with regard to the counties 
of East Tennessee : 

1. Sullivan — Thomas Fain, Arcady. 

2. Carter— Col. John K. Milder, Elizabethton. 
8. Johnson— T. S. Smith, Taylorsville. 

4. Washington— John F. Grisham, Jonesboro'. 

5. Greene— Col. F. A. Keeve, Greeneville. 

6. Hawkins— J. R. Armstrong, Rodgersville. 

7. Cocke— William McSweene, Esq., Newport. 



Description of the Counties, ^^ 

8. Jefferson — Wm. Harris, Danclridge ; Jolin E. Bran- 

ner, Mossy Creek. 

9. Granger — Warham Basely, Eutledge. 

10. Hancock — William B. Davis, Sneedville. 

11. Claiborne — Hon. Yincent Myers/ Head of Barron 

P.O. 

12. Union — L. Huddleston, Maynardsville. 
18. Knox — Munson & Seymour, Knoxville. 

14. Blount — Captain McConnell, Maryville. 

15. Sevier — M. W. McCowan, Sevierville. 

16. Roane — Captain Deits, Kingston. 

17. Anderson — Hon. James A. Doughty, Clinton. 

18. Campbell — J. J. Mares, Esq., Fincastle ; Eeuben 

Eogers, Esq., Jacksboro'* 

19. Morgan — Hon. Gr. W. Keith, Montgomery* 

20. Scott — Bailey Buttram, Hunts ville. 

21. Monroe — M. F. Johnson, Tellico Plains, R O. 

22. McMinn — ^M. L. Phillips, Esq., Athens. 

23. Meigs — Owen Solomon, Esq., Georgetown ; James 

Patterson, Ten Mile Stand. 

24. Ehea — William Morgan, Esq., Smith Cross Eoads. 

25. Bradley — Edwin S. DeLany, Cleveland. 

26. Polk — General James Gamble, Benton. 

27. Hamilton — A. A. Pierson, Esq., Chattanooga. 

28. Marion — George F. Smith, Jasper. 

29. Sequatchie — John Alley, Dunlap. 
80. Bledsoe — F. A. Hennegar, Pikeville. 



54 '^he T!ennessee Hand-Book, 

CONCLUDINa EEMAEKS. 

I sliall feel gratified if this slight outline of the re- 
sources and of the general condition of East Tennessee 
shall have produced a favorable impression on the 
minds of my readers. There was a time, after the sup- 
pression of the rebellion, when lawlessness prevailed 
in some portions of Bast Tennessee. In order to prove 
that it has ceased to prevail, I might bring forward 
mj own testimony : I might state that from the time of 
my return to East Tennessee in the month of January 
last, I have had full opportunity of becoming ac- 
quainted with the social condition of East Tennessee ; 
that it has improved from month to month, and that 
at the present time I do not know many portions of 
the United States where the laws are more strictly 
observed. Yet more convincing that any individual 
testimony, is the quiet and uninterrupted manner in 
which East Tennessee is progressing in the develop- 
ment of its resources. There is in the fact that capi- 
talists, after carefully examining the ground, do not 
hesitate to make investments and to extend their ope- 
rations from month to month, something so convincing 
as far as the peaceful condition of East Tennessee is 
concerned, that it makes all further argument needless. 
That such is the case in East Tennessee appears to 
some extent at least from the preceding pages. 



Description of the Counties, " 55 

II. 

MIDDLE TElTISrESSEB. 

Middle Tennessee embraces that portion of the Cam- 
berland mountain which is not situated in East -Ten- 
nessee, and which here rests on a plateau or table-land 
considerably elevated above what has been justly 
called the basin of Middle Tennessee. This plateau, 
extends to the Tennessee river, and to the Kentucky 
and Alabama line. Middle Tennessee also embraces 
the basin enclosed by this table-land, and the compara- 
tively narrow valley between the table-land and the 
Tennessee river. 

"Writers on the physical geography of Middle Ten- 
nessee are disposed to compare its surface, exclusive < 
of the Cumberland mountain and the valley of the 
Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, to an oval basin or 
shallow plate with a rim elevated some thousand feet 
above the ocean. To a certain extent this comparison 
holds true. Commencing at the base of the Cumber- 
land mountain, this table-land spreads out westward 
and runs around the northern and southern extremity 
of a depressed section of country, which may not im- 
properly be called a basin. In going from the centre 
of it to certain points in the counties of Robertson, 
Lincoln, De Kalb, Coffee, Warren, Lawrence and Dick- 
son, which are situated in opposite directions the one 
from the other, the traveler has in each instance to 
pass throTigh and leave the same limestone land, 
ascend the same flinty ridge, and reach the same level 



56 ne 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

plain. Beyond this,- however, the comparison does not 
hold. To trace minntelj the outline of that rim 
through the different counties would be utterly im- 
possible. 

The portion of Middle Tennessee situated on the 
Cumberland mountain is similar to the mountain land 
to which I have briefly referred in my account of 
East Tennessee. It is remarkable for the purity of 
its waters, the clearness of its atmosphere, and the salu- 
brity and mildness of its climate. When before the war 
the Episcopal bishops of the South sought for a spot 
where to erect a university, they could find none more 
healthy than the Cumberland mountain had to offer. 
For the medical profession it does not often present a 
favorable opening; in one or two counties there is 
hardly a practising physician to be found. This, how- 
ever, is partly owing to the fact that these counties are 
thinly settled, and that the settlers are often separated 
from each other by many mountain ridges. On these 
mountains the cattle and mules, the herds of swine 
and the flocks of sheep, are often feeding on the moun- 
tain grass and the rich weeds as late as the middle of 
November. 

The surface of the mountain, though in general un- 
dulating, is yet at times level as ■ the prairies of the 
Northwest. It has fine timber, and an abundance of 
coal. The soil, generally of a sandy loam, is produc- 
tive even in its natural state. With skilful cultivation 
it brings forth abundantly all the grains, grasses and 
vegetables appropriate to a temperate climate ; it is 
also deservedly noted for the fine fruit it produces. 

The Cumberland mountains have been extolled per- 



Description of the Counties, 57 

haps too much by some, and undervalued by others. 
From my personal knowledge I am ready to testify, 
that the pure air, the fine water, and the general salu- 
brity of these mountains have been regarded as of so 
great importance by many settlers that they have pre- 
ferred them to other regions where wealth might have 
been accumulated more speedily. They left them with 
regret at the beginning of the war; and they are likely 
soon to return to them. 

The table-land forming the western base of the Cum- 
berland mountains is varying in width from thirty to 
fifty mileS; and is spotted here and there with small 
isolated mountains or hills. In general; the surface 
is level or undulating, though more broken by coves 
and valleys in the vicinity of the mountain. The table- 
land is cut by the channels of Caney Fork, Collins, 
Barren; Duck, Calfkiller and other streams, yielding 
an abundance of water-power. Much of a fair fer- 
tile soil is found in several of the counties lying be- 
tween the basin and the valley of the Tennessee river. 
This table-land, with its water-power, its timber, its 
mineral wealth; its salubrious climatC; its pure water, 
its short and mild winters, its arable lands offered at 
moderate priceS; and its close vicinity to the cotton 
region; holds out strong inducements to the manufac- 
turer and the farmer. On this table-land alsO; with its 
barrens;* coves and valleys; the peach; pear; apple and 



* The term "barrens" is, in Middle Tennessee, applied to cer- 
tain lands wMcli are less fertile than others. Since the end of 
the war some of these " barrens " liave by proper culture been 
converted into fertile lands. 



58 The T^ennessee Hand-Book, 

clierrj grow to great perfection. Its soil produces 
tobacco, corn, wheat, oats and rye, and all the roots 
and vegetables adapted to the climate. The counties 
on the various railroads centring in Nashville are of 
course specially favored with convenient markets. 

This table-land is also penetrated by a railroad, leav- 
ing Tullahoma on the Nashville and Chattanooga Rail- 
road, and terminating at McMinnville, the county seat 
of Warren county. From McMinnville will run the 
Southwestern Railroad to Danville, Ky., for which a 
charter and liberal State aid have been obtained, and 
the construction of which has been commenced. It 
will pass through the counties of Warren, White, 
Putnam and Overton, and skirt along the foot of the 
Cumberland mountain, till it reaches the Kentucky 
line. The Pacific Railroad from Knoxville to Nash- 
ville will also pass across the table-land, through the 
counties of Putnam and White. As soon as these 
railroads shall penetrate the country, its lands will 
rapidly be sought and will advance in value. 

The many chalybeate and sulphur springs to be 
found on the table-land offer many delightful places 
of refuge during the months of July and August. 

The depressed section of country which is enclosed 
by this table-land ranks first in the State in population 
and in wealth. In the main the general surface of the 
basin is moderately rolling. The soil, with few ex- 
ceptions, is a rich limestone, not broken in by other 
soils as is the case in other parts of Middle Tennessee. 
Thanks to the absence of high mountain ridges, there 
is nothing to prevent a free circulation of warm air 
coming from the Mexican gulf and from the Missis- 



Description of the Counties, 59 

sippi river. The Tennessee river as it flows through 
Alabama, not far from the line of the State of Ten- 
nessee, and then through the State into Kentucky; 
the Cumberland river, in the half-circle it makes in 
Tennessee in entering it from Kentucky and in return- 
ing to it, and the Mississippi, the influence of which 
on the climate is felt in Middle as well as in West 
Tennessee, present, with their auxiliaries, a volume of 
water the effect of which becomes manifest in the 
general character of the atmosphere and the produc- 
tiveness of the soil. Those who have had an oppor- 
tunity of passing through the basin in the spring or 
the summer of the year, and of witnessing the well- 
cultivated fields laden with fruit, or of attending the 
gatherings of the producers when with just pride they 
expose their luscious products to the public gaze, can- 
not but feel that the basin has been justly, indeed, 
called the garden of Tennessee. The summer heat of 
.the central basin is ranging from 75° 5' to 77° W, and 
it is the same as that of the middle part of South 
Carolina. The supply of rain, in general, is amply 
suf&cient. 

A few words with regard to the valley situated 
between the table-land and the Tennessee river must 
now close this brief outline of the resources of Middle 
Tennessee. 

The Tennessee river, after leaving the southwestern 
portion of East Tennessee and passing into Alabama, 
encounters various obstructions, known as the Suck, 
the Pot, the Skillet, the Pan, and further on as the 
Muscle Shoals. The steps taken by the government 
to remove these obstructions; to which I have already 



6o ^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

referred, will, no doubt, greatly benefit the commerce 
of this valley. Though comparatively narrow, it has 
in its main part, and in its minor tributary valleys, 
tracts of excellent alluvial and valuable limestone 
land. Numerous landing and shipping points are 
found within it, along the river, commanding the 
trade, not only of the valley, but also of several ad- 
jacent counties. One of the principal exports is pig 
iron, the product of numerous furnaces within the 
limits of the valley, or in its immediate vicinity. The 
export of peanuts and of staves is also very great. 

1. 

THE COUNTIES OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE. 

They are: 1. Bedford; 2. Cannon; 3. Cheatham; 
4. Cumberland ; 5. Coffee ; 6. Davidson ; 7 Dickson ; 
8. DeKalb; 9. Fentress; 10. Franklin; 11. Giles; 
12. Grundy; 13. Humphreys; 14. Hickman; 15. 
Jackson; 16. Lawrence; 17. Lewis; 18. Lincoln; 
19. Macon; 20. Marshall; 21. Maury; 22. Mont- 
gomery; 23. Overton; 24. Perry; 25. Putnam; 26. 
Eobertson; 27. Eutherford ; 28. Smith; 29. Stewart; 
30. Sumner; 31. Yan Buren ; 32. Warren; 33. 
Wayne; 34. White; 35. Williamson; 36. Wilson. 

1. Bedford County. 

The southern and eastern portion of Bedford county 
is undulating, and remarkably productive in the cereals; 
the northwestern portion is suitable for the raising of 
cotton. It is one of the richest counties in the State. 
The Duck river flows through the county and divides 



Description of the Counties, 6i 

it almost in two. The grasses, including blue-grass, 
succeed remarkably well. Shelby ville, the county-seat, 
having a population of about four thousand inhabi- 
tants, is connected by a branch railroad with the Nash- 
• ville and Chattanooga Railroad at Wartrace Station. 
There is fine water-power in this county, and fruit 
succeeds remarkably well. A good beginning has been 
made in the culture of the grape by the Hon. W. H. 
Wisener, Sr., who will be ready to furnish information 
with regard to this and other subjects having reference 
to Bedford county ; so also will the Hon. T. H. Cald- 
well. 

2. Cannon County. 

A portion of Cannon county consists of barrens, a 
level region which, in part at least, may be readily 
brought under remunerative culture. There is also a 
considerable amount of good land in the county. The 
Stone river flows through it. A large portion of the 
county is well timbered and suitable for stock-raising. 
For further information apply to A. F. M'Eerrin, Esq.; 
Woodberry, 

3. Cheatham County- 
is rather hilly, though a large portion of it, especially 
the river and creek bottoms, is very rich. On the 
Cumberland, the Big Harpeth, the South Harpeth, and 
on several creeks, there is good water-power. The 
county is well timbered, and raises tobacco and the 
usual grains, grasses, and roots, in abundance. It is 
also well adapted to the raising of stock. The ISTorth- 
western Railroad in passing through the county crosses 

6 



62 'The Tennessee Hand-Book. 

tlie Big Harpetli five times. The soil is free-stone and 
highly suitable for making brick. Ashland, the connty 
seat; on the Cumberland river, is only eighteen miles 
below Nashville. The ready access to market by rail- 
road and steamboat may justly induce emigrants to turn 
their attention to this county. For further informa- 
tion apply to Warren Jordan, Ashland, the county 
seat. 

4. Cumberland County. 

This county is on the Cumberland mountain, and is 
exceedingly level. It is remarkable for health and a 
genial climate. In Cumberland county for a long 
time the thermometer has not risen above eighty-five 
degrees, nor fallen below zero. It is well timbered 
and watered. Grass, whethe];^wild or cultivated, grows 
very finely. It is also famous for the excellence of its 
fruit. Apples from Cumberland county (at Pomona) 
have taken premiums at many of the State fairs. 
Grreat quantities of cattle are fattened in this county 
every year. The Pacific Eailroad, which will probably 
run through this county, will furnish for the products 
of Cumberland county convenient markets. Mr. W. 
W Powell, formerly of Ohio, but now a citizen of 
Cumberland county, (Cross ville P. 0.,) in a printed 
statement which I have before me, dwells with great 
emphasis on the advantages afforded by the mountain 
counties, of which Cumberland county is one. The 
salubrious climate, the productive qualities of the soil, 
which to the industrious and skilful farmer yields 
bountifully, the cultivated grasses, as well as every 
farm -crop appropriate to a temperate climate, the 



Description of the Counties. Gi^ 

quantity and quality of the fruit; the large and readily- 
accessible beds of fine bituminous coal, the superior 
iron-ore, the valuable timber, the desirableness of im- 
proved breeds of cattle, horses, sheep, and hogs, oc- 
cupy, each in their turn, the attention of the writer in 
connection with the subject of the projected railroad to 
which I have just referred. This statement is vouched 
for by Mr. Falconnet, the engineer of the road. I 
have not been in Cumberland county, but to judge 
from the mountain counties I have visited, and more 
especially from Scott county, the picture is no doubt 
correct. Mr. Falconnet also dwells on the water-power 
of the Cumberland mountain, because it is likely to 
make that region of country a manufacturing district ; 
there the iron-ore will be worked and the cotton will 
be woven. For further information apply to W,. W. 
Powell, Esq.; CrossvillC; the county seat. 

5. Coffee County 

lies mostly on the table-land. Manchester, the county 
seat, is situated on the branch railroad running from 
Tullahoma to McMinnville in Warren county. In its 
immediate vicinity is the great water-power on Duck 
river. The citizens of Coffee county have taken 
systematic measures to encourage immigration. For 
further information apply to J. F. Thomas, Esq., and 
Dr. Hart, both at Tullahoma. 

6. Davidson County. 

West of the Cumberland river Davidson county is 
very hilly ; the eastern portion is remarkably fertile. 
The Cumberland, Harpeth, and Stone rivers flow in this 



64 '^he 1'ennessee Hand-Book, 

county. Cotton^ tobacco, the cereals, the grasses, fruit 
and vegetables, are cultivated with the success which 
generally characterizes the basin of Middle Tennessee. 
A large portion of the county is well timbered. 

The city of Nashville, the capital of the State, is the 
centre of the remarkably fertile counties which more 
or less form the basin of Middle Tennessee, as well as 
of the mountain district which enjoys so high a reputa- 
tion on account of its mineral wealth, and it is also the 
terminus of the various lines of railroad connecting 
ISTew York and the Northern lakes with New Orleans 
and with Charleston, by means of which the inhabi- 
tants of a still wider circle are drawn to it as the point 
where their produce is to find a market, and where 
their supplies are to be obtained. Nashville realizes 
the truth of the remark made by the late De Bow, that 
every dollar which a city spends judiciously in the 
railroads of which she is the terminus, is so much 
money added to her trading capital. The railroads 
terminating in Nashville are . the Nashville and North- 
western, the Edgefield and Kentucky, the Louisville 
and Nashville, the Nashville and Chattanooga, and the 
Decatur and Alabama Eailroads. The Memphis, Clarks- 
ville and Louisville, and the Memphis and Ohio Eail- 
roads contribute to the prosperity of Nashville through 
their connection with the Edgefield and Kentucky 
road, and the Nashville and Henderson road, when 
completed, will perform the same ofi&ce through the 
same channel. An increase of travel and of freight 
passing over these roads may be justly expected when- 
ever the Pacific Eailroad shall form a direct connec- 
tion between Knoxville and Nashville, and thus furnish 



Description of the Counties. 65 

a link whicli is now wanting in order to complete a 
direct route from Norfolk to Memphis and the Pacific 
coast. By the construction of this railroad, one df the 
principal routes to China and the East Indies will pass 
through Tennessee, and, thanks to her genial climate 
and the many advantages she has to offer, Tennessee 
will then be one of the States to which the main 
current of immigration will be directed. 

To its commercial importance it adds the influence 
which it exerts as the capital of the State, and as the 
principal centre of whatever Tennessee possesses of 
science, art, or literature. 

Among the buildings of Nashville the capitol, on 
account of its superior architecture and the beauty of 
its situation, deserves special notice. The stone of 
which it is built is taken from a quarry within the 
precincts of the city ; the marble which adorns it in 
rich and pleasing profusion has been brought there 
from the marble-quarries of East Tennessee. 

The population of the city is about forty thousand. 
There are in Nashville from four to five thousand Grer- 
man residents. To encourage immigration two associ- 
ations have been formed : The German Immigration 
Association and The American Immigration Associa- 
tion. 

The Cumberland river, which flows by Nashville, is 
navigable from seven to eight months in the year. It 
is spanned by a beautiful wire bridge. 

The ready access of the city of Nashville to the 
mineral region of the mountain district, the moderate 
price at which she obtains her coal, especially from the 
Sewanee mines, the salubrity of her climate, her 



66 ^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

abundant material for tlie erection of substantial struc- 
tures; and the rich agricultural region by whicb sbe is 
surrounded, place it in her power — I again quote the 
language of the late De Bow — not only to extend her 
manufactures, but to manufacture every article which 
she now imports from Louisville and St. Louis, as 
cheaply as they are furnished her by those cities. 
The formation of a State Board of Horticulture is an 
encouraging feature in the late history of Nashville. 

The object I have immediately in view in writing 
these pages, and my limited space, prevents my dwell- 
ing especially on the institutions of learning, the 
various manufacturing establishments, the public 
buildings, the charitable enterprises, the leading mer- 
cantile firms, the beautiful surroundings, and the 
hallowed recollections, which invest the city of Nash- 
ville with a peculiar interest. 

For farther information apply to Anson Nelson, 
Esq., and to Felix Cheatham, Esq. 

7. Dickson County 

is rather hilly ; the land is especially rich on the river 
and creeks, and they are equally remarkable for their 
water-power. The Cumberland river divides Dickson 
from Cheatham and Montgomery counties ; the Har- 
peth -here flows into the Cumberland river. There is 
a great deal of iron in this county, and two iron- works 
are in operation. At Smeedville, on the Nashville and 
Northwestern Eailroad, which passes through the 
county, Mr. C. Beringer, of Alleghany City, Pa., is 
establishing a colony of farmers and mechanics, like 
himself) immigrants from Pennsylvania. There is oil 



Description of the Comities. 67 

shipped from this county. The soil is both free and 
limestone. The lumber is abundant and good. Dick- 
son county is remarkable for its salubrious climate. 
Apply for further information to the Hon. M. J. J, 
Cagle, at Charlotte, the county seat. 

8. De Kalb County 

is hilly, and while well adapted to the usual grains, is es- 
pecially so to fruit-growing. The grape has been suc- 
cessfully cultivated in this county, and its citizens have 
shown a laudable interest in the scientific treatment 
and improvement of their soil. Further information 
may be obtained from Hon. J. A. Fuson, at Smith ville, 
the county seat. The Pacific road, when constructed, 
will greatly serve to develop the resources of this 
county. 

9. Fentress County. 

Half of Fentress county is situated on the Cumber- 
land mountain, the other half on the table land. There 
is rich land on the sides of the mountain, and also on 
some of the creeks. The county is heavily timbered. 
Eafts of timber and flat-boats are passing down the 
Obed river without any danger. The Fentress county 
coal is declared by experts to be excellent for gas as 
well as fuel. From the margin of a coal-field of more 
than one thousand acres in extent, and four feet thick, 
near the Obed river, safe for navigation to Nashville, 
may be seen a fine quality of oil exuding from the bed 
of a creek. There is a good deal of superior iron and 
of fire-proof tile-rock in the county. For further in- 
formation apply to Hon. John B. Eogers, South Kock 
Island, Yan Buren county, Tennessee. 



68 '^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

10. Franklin County. 

The N'aslaville and Chattanooga Eailroad when leav- 
ing Marion county enters the State of • Alabama, 
crosses the Tennessee river at Bridgeport, and soon 
after enters Franklin county in the State of Tennessee. 
Erom Cowan Station on the Nashville and Chattanooga 
Railroad there is a branch-railroad, twenty-one miles 
long, to Tracy City and Sewanee coal mines. At 
Dechard there is a branch-railroad, which before the 
war extended to Fayetteville, the county seat of Lin- 
coln county ; it was destroyed during the war ; twenty- 
one miles have been rebuilt ; arrangements are being 
made to rebuild the remaining twenty miles , this 
branch-road runs through Winchester, the county seat. 
Franklin county is situated principally on what is 
called the first bench of the mountain. The ascent 
begins south of Tullahoma, in Coffee county ; the 
highest point is reached beyond Cowan, where the 
road passes through a tunnel. A considerable portion 
of Franklin county lies on the Cumberland mountain. 
Within ten miles of the mountain the soil is remarka- 
bly fruitful. Further on it is less so, but it is capable 
of being brought under remunerative culture. The 
necessity of providing with food the mining popula- 
tion at Sewanee mines is felt beyond the limits of 
Marion county. There are fertile tracts of land in the 
eastern portion of Franklin county, which can be pur- 
chased at moderate prices. The nearness of the market 
at the mines will make the working of these lauds 
highly remunerative. Elk river has several falls ; the 
main fall is twenty feet. There are in Franklin county 
several chalybeate and sulphur spriugs. The climate 



Description of the Counties, 6g 

and the water of the county are very fine. The Uni- 
versity; under the auspices of the Episcopal Church, 
for the establishing of which on a beautiful spot on 
the Cumberland mountains, and in the immediate 
vicinity of the branch-railroad, preparations were made 
before the war, has gone into operation. For further 
information in regard to Franklin county, apply to 
Captain Davenport at Dechard, or to Arthur M. Eut- 
lege, Esq.; Nashville, Tenn. 

11. Giles County. 

Giles county is hilly. Richland creek flows into 
the Elk river in this county; on this creek, and on 
the creeks flowing into it, there is a good deal of water- 
power. Pulaski, on the Decatur and Alabama Eail- 
road; is the county seat. A Pomological Society has 
been formed in this county, which is very active 
in introducing large quantities of imported fruit, in- 
cluding the grape ; with regard to the culture of the 
grape a good beginning has been made by Mr. A. Cox, 
Clerk and Master of the Chancery Court at Pulaski. 
Giles county is one of the most fertile counties in Mid- 
dle Tennessee. 

12. Grundy County. 

A large portion of this county is situated on the 
Cumberland mountains; there also are the Beersheba 
Springs. The Collins river, noted for its water-power, 
flows through this county. Mr. Griswold, Clerk of the 
County Court at Altemont, the county seat, may be 
applied to for further information. 



70 'The 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

13. Humphreys County. 

Humphreys county is generally hilly, yet it has very 
fine bottom-lands on the Tennessee river, the Duck 
river, which in this county flows into the Tennessee, 
and on several creeks. The Tennessee separates 
Humphreys from Benton county; from Johnsonville 
down it is navigable during the whole year. A steamer 
leaves Johnsonville every day for St. Louis. The 
Northwestern Eailroad passes through the county and 
crosses the Tennessee at Johnsonville. This county 
is rich in iron ore, which before the war was success- 
fully worked. Good timber is abundant. The soil is 
limestone. For further information apply to B. B. 
Spicer, Esq., at Waverly, the county seat, and to Hon. 
David Brewer, at Camden, Benton county. 

14. Hickman County 

is generally hilly. There are in this county vast de- 
posits of iron ore. Liberal State aid has been extended 
to the ^tna Iron Mining and Oil Company, in order 
to construct a railroad from a convenient station on 
the Nashville and Northwestern Eailroad to the very 
heart of the property of that Company. The iron of 
Hickman county is unequalled in the West Tennessee 
and Kentucky iron region. On Duck river, which 
flows through this county, there is considerable water- 
power. For further information concerning Hickman 
county, apply to Mr. William H. Puckett, Clerk of the 
County Court at Centreville. 

15. Jackson County. 

Jackson county is in some parts hilly, in others 
mountainous. The Obed river flows in this county 



Description of the Counties. 71 

into the Cumberland river at Celina. There is a good 
deal of water-power in Jackson county. Apply for 
further information to Ensley Wilmore, at Gainsboro', 
the county seat. 

16. Lawrence County. 

Some portions of Lawrence county are hilly, others 
level. On Shoal and other creeks there is fine water- 
power. There is a great deal of iron ore in the county, 
and some of it is worked. There are thousands' of 
acres of tillable land lying idle in this county which 
could be had at from two to three dollars. For further 
information apply to Mr. P. H. Turner, at Lawrence- 
burg. 

17. Lewis County. 

Lewis county is an elevated plain, about three 
hundred feet above the surrounding valleys ; the 
county is well timbered ; portions of it are very fer- 
tile ; the soil is light but mellow, and well adapted to 
the growth of the cereals, and of fruit. For further 
information apply to the Hon. 0. 0. Bean, Columbia, 
Maury county. 

18. Lincoln County. 

The surface of Lincoln county is rolling. Before 
the war Fayetteville, the county seat, was connected by 
a branch railroad with the Nashville and Chattanooga 
Eailroad at Dechard. A large portion of the county 
is well adapted to the growing of cotton. For further 
information apply to the Eev. Alexander Smith, Fay- 
etteville. 



72 ^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book. 

19. Macon County. 

About two-tliirds of Macon county is situated on 
the table-land, and is very billy; the remaining third 
is in tbe basin, and is well adapted to the growth of 
tobacco and of the cereals. Owing to the frosts, in 
planting orchards the late apples are to be preferred. 
About ten miles from Lafayette, the county seat, there 
is a mineral well which enjoys deservedly a high repu- 
tation for curing diseases of the kidneys. For further 
information apply to P. A. Wilkinson, Circuit Clerk, at 
Lafayette. 

20. Marshall County. 

The northern portion of Marshall county is partly 
rocky and partly level, the southern portion is hilly ; 
the Duck river flows through the northern portion. 
Cotton is extensively cultivated. For further informa- 
tion apply to Alfred McGahey, Esq., at Lewisburg, the 
county seat. 

21. Maury County 

is generally level; it is exceedingly fertile, and is 
justly regarded as the great blue-grass region of the 
State. On Duck river and on the Bigby creeks there 
are remarkably fine bottom-lands. Great attention is 
paid in this county to the raising of cotton and tobacco 
as well as to that of the cereals, the grasses, and the r 
roots and vegetables. There is a good deal of improved 
stock in this county. For further information apply to 
the Hon. C. C. Bean, at Columbia, the county seat. 



Description of the Counties, 73 

22. Montgomery County 

is rather level. Clarksville, the county seat, situated 
on the Cumberland river, is a town of considerable 
commerce; the Memphis, Clarksville and Louisville 
Eailroad passes through it. In the south of the county 
cotton matures well ; north of the river tobacco is the 
great staple. The county is rich in iron ; there are 
several iron- works on the Cumberland river. An im- 
migration society has been formed in this county. For 
further information apply to W. M. Shelton, the County 
Surveyor. 

23. Overton County. 

Overton county is partly situated on the Cumberland 
mountain, but mainly on the table-land. The Obed 
river flows through this county. There is a great 
deal of coal in Overton county. On Spring creek, 
about twelve miles from Livingston, the county seat, 
there is a well of oil flowing five hundred barrels a 
day ; the oil is of the best quality. The Southwestern 
Eailroad will pass near this well. For further infor- 
mation apply to the Hon. John B. Eogers, South Eock 
Island, Van Buren county, Tenn. 

24. Perry County, 

though generally hilly, has also fine valley lands. 
There is a good deal of water-power on Buffalo river, 
on Cain creek and on various other creeks. The 
county is well adapted to the cultivation of tobacco, 
the cereals, and the grasses, and also to fruit. For 
further information apply to the Hon. Jesse Taylor, 
at Linden, the county seat. 



74 'the 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

25. Putnam County. 

A portion of Putnam county is on tlae mountain. 
On Falling Water and on other creeks there is a great 
deal of water-power. The Pacific and Southwestern 
Eailroads are both expected to pass through this county. 
Apply for further information to E. H. Stone, Clerk of 
the County Court, at Cookville, the county seat. 

26. Robertson County. 

Eobertson county is generally hilly, but tobacco and 
the usual grains, grasses, roots, and vegetables grow 
well. There is a good deal of cheap and tolerably 
good land for sale in this county. The Edgefield and 
Kentucky Eailroad passes through the county. Further 
information may be obtained from E. H. Murphy, at 
Springfield, the county seat. 

27. Rutherford County. 

With Murfreesboro', the county seat, for its centre, 
there is, within the circumference of from eight to ten 
miles, a region in which cotton, tobacco, the grains, 
the grasses, and especially blue grass, grow remarka- 
bly well; otherwise the county is rather hilly. At 
Murfreesboro' are the well-known Utility Works, turn- 
ing out $6,000 worth of cedar- ware every month. The 
Stone river flows near Murfreesboro', and the Nashville 
and Chattanooga Eailroad passes through it. For 
further information apply to Hon. W. Y. Elliott, or to 
E. L. Jordan, Esq., both at Murfreesboro'. 



Description of the Counties, 75 

* 28. Smith County. 

The surface of Smith county is mostly "undulating 
or hilly, except the river-bottoms, which are level. 
The formations are limestone, and the soil is of course 
very fertile. The Cumberland river passes through 
the county from east to west, dividing it into two 
nearly equal parts. The Caney enters the county 
near Carthage, the county seat. Small boats, seven 
months in the year, navigate this tributary seventy-five 
miles from its mouth. The meadow grass is timothy, 
herd-grass or red-top, and the pasture grass, blue grass. 
Indian corn, wheat, rye, barley and oats do well ; In- 
dian corn especially. Tobacco has been cultivated 
extensively on the rivers. Turnips, sweet potatoes, 
onions, &c., have done well when tried; much of the 
soil is evidently adapted to their vigorous growth. 
Apples, plums, and peaches, and, so far as tried, 
grapes, and such small fruit as strawberries, do well. 
Smith county is peculiarly well adapted to the raising of 
stock; wood is plenty all over the county; timber is 
also plenty, poplar, oak of several kinds, walnut, ash, 
hickory, cherry, sugar-maple, linden, beech, &c. There 
are two hundred and twenty -four thou.sand one hun- 
dred and six acres of .taxable land in the county, ac- 
cording to the reports, in 1861 ; about one-half of this 
is in cultivation. The Pacific Eailroad is expected 
to pass through this county. Eor further information 
apply to Dr. Grordon, at Jennings' Ford P. 0. 

29. Stewart County 

is rather hilly. The Cumberland river passes through 
it, and the Tennessee river separates it from Henry 



76 ^he 'I'ennessee Hand-Book, 

county. Fort Donelson on tlie Cumberland, and Fort 
Henry on the Tennessee, are in this county. There is 
great mineral wealth in this county. On the Cumber- 
land river, and not far from the Memphis, Clarksville 
and Louisville Eailroad, are the Cumberland Iron 
Works, owned by Woods, Yeatman & Co. ; they are 
well deserving the attention of the immigrant who 
wishes to purchase a home, or who is in search of em- 
ployment; these works, which before the war were 
very extensive, are now reduced to one forge and one 
large furnace, employing some three hundred opera- 
tives, and producing pig-metal, blooms, and a large 
quantity of sugar kettles for the Louisiana market. 
The quality of the iron manufactured is well thought 
of throughout the Southern market. To these Iron 
Works belong sixty-five thousand acres of land, a 
large amount of which is cleared and fertile. The 
hilly portion is excellent for tobacco, for grazing, and 
for small grains. There is a constant demand for labor 
for the supply of different processes in the manufac- 
ture of iron and in farm work. There is also within 
the compass of the Company's lands a large supply of 
fire-clay to make fire-bricks. 

Stewart county is well timbered, has a good deal of 
water-power, and is well adapted to fruit-growing, and 
the culture of the grape. For further information 
apply to H. H. Hollester, Esq., or to the Hon. Dr. 
Carter, at Cumberland city. 

30. Sumner County. 

The surface of the county is undulating. On the 
various creeks of the county there are fine bottom- 



Description of the Counties, 77 

lands and good water-power. The Cumberland river 
separates Wilson and Sumner counties. Cotton, to- 
bacco, the grains and the grasses succeed well. There 
are mineral springs in the county. The ridge passing 
through Sumner is well timbered, and fine for the cul- 
tivation of the grape. There is much land for sale, 
with regard to which Hon. T. McKinley, at Gallatin, 
the county seat, may be applied to for information. 

31. Van Buren County. 

About half the county is situated on the Cumberland 
mountain ; the other half is hilly. The Caney Fork 
and other creeks, having considerable water-power, 
flow -through it. The county is well adapted to cotton, 
tobacco, the grains and the grasses, and also to fruit, 
including the grape. There is plenty of coal in the 
county, and also many chalybeate springs. The county 
seat, Spencer, is about twenty miles from McMinnville, 
the nearest market outside of the county. For further 
information apply to W. B. Cummings, Esq., at Spen- 
cer. 

32. "Warren County 

is one of the counties belonging to the elevated region 
of country extending for a considerable distance from 
the foot of the Cumberland mountain. The county 
seat is McMinnville, the terminus of the branch railroad 
which connects it with Tullahoma. Near Eock island, 
twelve miles from McMinnville, the Caney Fork (after 
having been formed out of the Collins river, Eocky 
river. Calf-killer, and Cain creek) falls ninety-one feet in 
nine hundred yards, in the shape of a crescent, where 



7 8 l!he Tennessee Hand-Book, 

machinery to any amount can be put, furnisliing forty 
thousand cubic feet per minute at ordinary tide within 
one-and-a-quarter mile from the Southwestern Kail- 
road, now partly graded. There is an Immigration 
Society in Warren county. The Eev. "Wm. Baker, the 
Corresponding Secretary of the Society, has published 
a description of Middle Tennessee, with special refer- 
ence to the mountain district: on the soil and the 
face of the country, on fruit and grass-growing, on the 
culture of the grape, on the water, the health, the 
resources and the railroads, on stock-raising and on 
the price and title of lands. Por further information 
apply to Eev. Henry Stevens, Tullahoma. 

33. Wayne County. 

Wayne county is broken with many creeks running 
through it. The iron ore, of which there is much in 
the county, has been considerably worked in past times. 
A small portion of Wayne county lies beyond the 
Tennessee river. Further information may be obtained 
from the Hon. Jonathan Morris, at Waynesboro', the 
county seat. 

34. White County. 
A portion of White county is on the table-land of 
the Cumberland mountain; its surface in general is un- 
dulating. There is much fine land in the county, and 
water-power, especially on Calf-killer creek. Cotton, 
tobacco, the usual grains and grasses, and fruit also, 
succeed well. A considerable portion of White county 
consists of "barrens." The Scuppenong grape succeeds 
well in this county. Bonair Springs, situated five miles 



Description of the Counties, 79 

east of Sparta, is regarded by Professor Frost as one 
of tlie most medicinal waters in the United States ; it 
is especially noted on account of tlie relief it affords 
in cases of dyspepsia. For further information con- 
cerning White county apply to William F. Carter, near 
Sparta. 

._ ^ 35. Williamson County 

is level, and well adapted to the growth of cotton. 
The Harpeth river flows through the county. Frank- 
lin, the county seat, is on the Decatur and Alabama 
Eailroad. The county is also exceedingly well adapted 
to the growth of tobacco and the cereals ; the latter 
are likely to be extensively cultivated. For further in- 
formation apply to John B. McEwen, Esq., at Franklin. 

36. Wilson County. 

The western portion of Wilson county is well ad- 
apted to the raising of cotton ; the middle and eastern 
more especially for tobacco and the cereals. The Cum- 
berland separates Wilson county from Sumner and 
Smith counties. Timber is abundant, especially cedar; 
the county is also noted for its hogs and mules. The 
Pacific Eailroad will pass through this county. For 
further information apply to J. W. Phillips, Col. M. A. 
Price, and Z. W. Frazier, at Lebanon, the county seat. 



8o 'The Tennessee Hand-Book, 



EEMAEKS. 

From the data "here presented, it appears that of the 
thirtj-six counties of Middle Tennessee, eight are 
either entirely or in part on the Cumberland mountain. 
They are Cumberland, Fentress, Overton, Franklin, 
Grundy, Putnam, Yan Buren, and White counties. 

Thirteen are entirely or in part in the basin. All 
of Eutherford, Wilson, and Marshall, the greater part 
of Sumner, Maury, Giles, Lincoln, Bedford, Cannon, 
and Smith, and portions of Jackson and De Kalb. 

The remaining fifteen counties are entirely on the 
table land.* 

Table showing the average value of land per acre in each 
county in Middle Tennessee.j^ 

Value of land Value of land 

Counties. per acre. Counties. per acre. 

Bedford $16 39 De Kalb $4 54 

Cannon 7 01 Fentress.... 92 

Cheatham 4 73 Franklin 4 76' 

Cofifee 5 33 Giles 12 69 

Cumberland 76 Grundy..... 97 

Davidson 29 34 Humphreys 1 92 

Dickson 2 43 Hickman 2 54 



* The term "table land," in works written on this subject, is 
often applied to the Cumberland mountain ; as, however, the 
peoi^le in general apply that term to the highlands which com- 
mence at the foot of the Cumberland mountain, and extend to the 
Tennessee river and to Kentucky, I have adopted their custom. 

t The remark made with regard to the average value of land 
in East Tennessee is also applicable to Middle Tennessee. 



tabular Statement of the Weather. 8i 



Value of land 

Counties. per acre. 

Jackson $4 32 

Lawrence 2 89 

Lewis. 1 17 

Lincoln.... 7 26 

Macon 3 91 

Marshall 10 38 

Maurj 18 51 

Montgomery 7 16 

Overton 3 62 

Perry 3 45 

Putnam 2 90 



Value of land 
Counties. per acre. 

Robertson $7 94 

Rutherford 12 40 

Smith 9 47 

Stewart 2 81 

Sumner 9 19 

Yan Buren 1 11 

Warren 4 04 

Wayne 2 38 

White.. 3 07 

Williamson 14 43 

Wilson 11 38 



Tabular Statement of the Occurrence of Frosty from Ob- 
servations made at G-lenwood, near Glarksville, Tenn. : 

Days free 
TeaTS ^*** Frost First in Frost Days free from killing 

• in Spring. Autumn. Skim Ice. from Frost. Frost. 

1851. ..May 2.. ..Oct. 23.. ..Oct. 23.... 173 173 

1852. ..Mar. 23.. ..Oct. 15.. ..Nov. 8.... 205 228 

1853. ..Mar. 29.. ..Oct. 11.... Oct. 25.... 195 210 

1854...Apr. 18....0ct. 19....N0V. 5.... 184 201 

1855. ..Apr. 7.. ..Oct. 16.. ..Oct. 25.... 187 200 

1856. ..Apr. 23.. ..Oct. 22.. ..Oct. 18.... 175 176 

i!^57...Apr.20....Sept.30....Oct. 20.... 162 181 

1858... Apr. 25.... Oct. 9.. ..Nov. 14.... 166 201 

1859... Apr. 18.... Oct. 10.. ..Oct. 19.,.. 174 182 

1860. ..Apr. 2....Sept.21....0ct. 12.... 171 192 

Means 179.2 194.4 



82 The 'Tennessee Hand-Book. 

The preceding table shows the length of the period 
between killing frosts. It is to a great extent the 
measure of the "growing" season. It is taken from 
Professor Safford's "Physical Geography of Ten- 
nessee," and was prepared by Prof. W. M. Stewart. 

In East Tennessee the "growing" season is about 
two weeks shorter. 



Extract from P. F. TaveVs Booh of Observations on the 
Temperature of Middle Tennessee, 

Yeara. Spring Frosts. Days. Degrees. Fall Frosts. Days. Degrees. 

1846. ..April 13 32....... .October 21. .....26 

1847. ..April 16 32 October 14..... .82 

1848. ..April 20 34 October 18 32 

1849. ..April 24. .....28. ....... October 8 34 

1850. ..April 14 29 October 7 34 

1851. ..May 2 30 .October 15 34 

1852. ..April 17 32 October 2 30 

1853. ..April 6 29 October 25 31 

1854. ..'April 30 33 Nov 2 32 

1855. ..April. .....15 30 October 25 32 

1856. ..April 1 33 Nov 5 32 

1857. ..April 22 30 October 21 30 

1858. .-.April 27 30 Nov 6 84 

1859...April 18 33 October 19 33 

1860. ..April 26 88 October 13 28 

1861. ..April 20 82 October 24 29 

1862. ..March 23 28 October 20 82 

1863. ..April 8 28 October...... 6 32 

1864.. .May 3 33 October..... 9 32 



Description of the Counties, 83 

III. 
WEST TENNESSEE. 

The two most prominent features in tlie natural 
configuration of West Tennessee are tlie plateau, situ- 
ated between the Tennessee and the Mississippi rivers 
and the bottoms of the Mississippi. The plateau includes 
the whole of the counties of Weakly, Gibson, Carroll, 
Madison, Henderson, Eayette, and Hardeman, and por- 
tions of several other counties. In going west from 
the Tennessee river, which separates West from Middle 
Tennessee, this somewhat hilly and broken ridge is 
soon reached, while its slope to the Mississippi, which 
forms its western boundary, is very gradual. It termi- 
nates in a long and precipitous escarpment or '' bluff," 
which, coming out of Mississippi, runs in a nearly 
direct course from Memphis to Hickman county, Ky. 
The soil generally is mellow and good. In the familiar 
language of the people, it is a remarkably "free" soil; 
one that produces most readily if you treat it kindly. 
A portion of this western slope running in a band 
from twenty to thirty miles wide, and limited on the 
west by the " blufij" is covered with a good stratum of 
light yellow ashen earth, which yields a strong, excel- 
lent soil. The uplands of Obion and Dyer belong to 
this band. In those counties, the growth of cotton- 
wood, sweet gum, walnut, beech, white oak, and other 
trees, is unsurpassed by any thing elsewhere in Ten- 
nessee. 

But greatly as this elevated region deserves the atten- 
tion of the immigrant or settler, it is far surpassed in 



84 ^he Tennessee Hand-Book. 

richness of soil by the cotton lands of the Mississippi 
river. There for centuries the rains have washed down 
the rich soil of the surrounding hills, and the rich, 
dark mould has been accumulating. 

Yet richer even than the cotton lands of West Ten- 
nessee will be the soil which sooner or later must be 
won from the swamps of the Mississippi. Whenever 
it is done, there will be a striking illustration furnished 
of the fact that the poorer lands of a country are culti- 
vated before the richer are reached, and West Ten- 
nessee will be more productive than any other part of 
the State. 

The change from slave to free labor is likely to pro- 
duce a considerable change in the products raised in 
this section of the country, Tennessee may soon rival 
Illinois and Iowa in the producing of corn and of 
wheat. It is one of the most interesting facts that 
can well be stated, with regard to the agricultural 
resources of West, as well as a portion of Middle 
Tennessee, that they produce all the cereals that grow 
North, and, with the exception of the sugar cane, and 
of rice, all the agricultural products growing in the 
South, and that on account of the mildness of its 
climate, and the long period during which it is capable 
of producing, they can take these products either 
North or South, while in the one place the cold and in 
the other the heat prevent their growth. Tobacco, 
corn, wheat, and many other species of grain, as well 
as fruit and vegetables, reach the North four weeks 
sooner than they can ripen there ; and these cereals, 
fruits, and vegetables, as they successively appear, 
may also be seen in the more southern markets when 



Description of the Counties, 85 

tlie time for growing them there has passed. The 
same holds of course true with regard to the flour 
manufactured in Tennessee. It is in the Northern . 
market long before wheat ripens in the North. It 
commands a higher price, not only on this account, 
but also from the fact that the wheat from which it 
has been manufactured has ripened in a comparatively 
dry atmosphere, and, in consequence of it, keeps better 
when sent to distant parts of the United States or to 
Europe. 

The Mobile and Ohio Eailroad runs from Mobile 
through Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Western 
Kentucky to Colilmbus, Ky., a distance of 472 miles. 
In "West Tennessee, it passes through the counties of 
Hardeman, McNairy, Henderson, Madison, Gibson, and 
Obion. In conjunction with the Illinois Central, it 
makes a direct line from the Gulf at Mobile to the 
lakes at the North, furnishing the tables of those who 
live within reach of these roads on the same day with 
oysters from the Gulf and fresh fish from the lakes, 
and affording the farmers near this road vast oppor- 
tunities for the sale of their products. 

It is worthy of note that in West Tennessee itself 
fruit ripens two weeks sooner in the south than in the 
north. 

The climate of West Tennessee, with few exceptions, 
is healthy. In some of the counties, and near- the 
swamps of the Mississippi river, fevers prevail. As 
the land is cleared and the soil cultivated, there will 
be a change for the better in the portions of West 
Tennessee which are now unhealthy. The Big Hatchie, 
the Forked Deer, the Obion, and the other rivers by 

8 



86 '^he 'Tennessee Hand-Baok. 

wHcli the western slope is more or less broken, are 
long, sinuous, and sluggish in their course; but the 
water flowing into these rivers is cool and wholesome. 
Many wells have been bored, and the success attending 
them has at some points nearly or quite doubled the 
price of land. 



THE COUNTIES OF WEST TENNESSEE. 

They are: 1. Benton; 2. Carroll; 3. Decatur; 4. 
Dyer ; 5. Fayette ; 6. Gibson ; 7. Hardeman ; 8. Hardin ; 
9. Haywood; 10. Henderson; 11. Henry; 12. Lauder- 
dale; 13. Madison; 14. McNairyf 15. Obion; 16. 
Shelby ; 17. Tipton ; 18. Weakley. 

1. Benton County ^ 

is rather hilly. It is situated west of the Tennessee 
river, which separates it from Humphreys and Perry 
county. The county is remarkably healthy and well 
adapted for cotton, the cereals and the grasses, except 
blue grass. The timber is very fine ; the soil, free- 
stone. For further information, apply to Hon. David 
Brewer, at Camden, the county seat. 

2. Carroll County 

is moderately level. The Nashville and Northwestern 
Railroad passes through the county. The soil is free- 
stone and sandy. The county seat, situated on the 
railroad, is Huntington. Near this town there are 
chalybeate springs. Sandy river flows through the 
county. Cotton, tobacco, the cereals and the grasses. 



Description of the Counties, 87 

except blue grass, succeed well. The timber of the 
county is poplar, oak, gum, &g. For further informa- 
tion apply to Hon. Alwin Hawkins, and to the Hon. J. 
R. Hawkins, M. C, both at Huntington, the county seat. 

3. Decatur Caunty 
is rather hilly. On the Tennessee river, which bounds 
it on the east, there are fine bottom lands. Decatur 
belongs to the great field of iron ore known as " The 
Western Iron Region." There are one or two iron 
furnaces in this county. The climate is salubrious ; 
the timber, poplar, beech, &c. ; the soil, freestone. 
Decatur county is adapted to the growth of cotton, 
the cereals and the grasses, except blue grass. For, 
further information, apply to John L. Huston, Perry 
ville P. 0. 

4. Dyer County 

embraces part of the Western slope, the light, yellow, 
ashen earth of which yields a strong and excellent 
soil. The timber is a growth of poplar, black 
walnut, beech and white oak. It is bounded on the 
west by the Mississippi, the bottoms of which are ex- 
ceedingly rich. The Southside River Railroad, when 
constructed, will greatly serve to develop the resources 
of this county. For further information, apply to 
Thomas H, Benton, County Court Clerk, J. W. Darkin- 
ton. Sheriff, and Jam@s McCoy, all at Dyersburg, the 
county seat. 

5. Fayette County 

is generally level. The Memphis and Charleston 
Railroad passes through itj a branch of it, thirteen 



Sv8 "^he 1'ennessee Hand-Book, 

miles in length, goes to Summerville, the county^seat. 
The soil is freestone ; favorable to cotton, the cereals 
and the grasses, except blue grass. There is fine tim- 
ber in the county : poplar, all kinds of oak, &c. Fruit 
succeeds well ; there is a vineyard in the county which 
bears well. For further information, apply to James 
Hollowel, Esq., at Summerville. 

6. Gibson County 

is generally level and well adapted for cotton, tobacco, 
the cereals and the grasses, with the exception of 
clover and blue grass; the soil is freestone. The 
apple, the peach, the pear, and the cherry succeed well. 
Tha Mobile and Ohio and the Memphis and Ohio 
Eailroads furoish superior and readily accessible 
markets to the farmer. The health of the county is 
generally good. There is a celebrated well in this 
county called the Gibson Well. For further informa- 
tion, apply to John L. Williamson, at Trenton, the 
county seat. 

7. Hardeman County. 

Broken in its eastern portion, it is there noted for its 
growth of pine ; in its western portion it is very level 
and fertile, though, in consequence of careless treat- 
ment, greatly in need of manure. Bolivar, the county 
seat, is on the Central Mississippi Eailroad. The 
Memphis and Charleston Eailroad also passes through 
Hardeman county. In the western portion, where 
timber has been wasted for many years, it is compara- 
tively scarce. The soil is freestone, loose and sandy 
and easy to cultivate. On Big Hatchie and on several 



Description of the Counties, 89 

creeks there is a good deal of water-power. Tlie grow- 
ing of cotton, to which this county is well adapted, is 
to a considerable extent supplanted by the cultivation 
of the cereals. The grasses, except blue grass, succeed 
well, also Irish and sweet potatoes. The growing of 
fruit, for which this county is also well adapted, has 
been greatly neglected. The grape is successfully 
cultivated at Bolivar. Among the medicinal waters I 
mention Dunlop chalybeate springs, two and a-half 
miles south of Bolivar. For further information^ apply 
to E. P. McNeal; Esq., at Bolivar. 

6. Hardin County. 

The land on the east side of the Tennessee river is 
freestone and tolerably hilly; on the west side it is 
limestone and more level. The Tennessee river has 
good bottoms, and on some of the creeks there is fine 
water-power ; cotton, tobacco and the cereals grow well ; 
as also do the grasses. There is plenty of hydraulic 
limestone in Hardin county, and the cement made of 
it is said to be excellent. The river is navigable for 
the transmission of freight or produce during from 
seven to eight months. For further information, apply 
to the Hon. Alfred Potter, Saltillo P. 0. Hardin 
belongs to the great western iron field mentioned in 
my remarks on Middle Tennessee. There is a good 
deal of green sand or " marl " in this county. 

9. Haywood. 

The surface of the county is rather rolling; the 
county seat is Brownsville, containing about 1,000 in 
habitants; and rapidly improving. Haywood county 



go The Tennessee Hand-Book, 

is adapted to every variety of cultivation, be it cotton, 
tobaccO; grain or the grasses. The Memphis and Ohio 
Eailroad runs through the county, and the Big Hatchie 
and Forked Deer flow into it. There is an abundance 
of timber in the county, and on the rivers there are 
fine bottoms. For further information apply to Hon. 
"William Bond and to the Hon. David Nunn, M. C, both 
at Brownsville; the county seat. 

10. Henderson County 

is tolerably level. The soil is sandy and freestone. 
On the Beech river, the Sandy and the Forked Deer, 
there are a number of mills. The Mobile and Ohio 
Eailroad passes through the southwestern portion of 
this county. The principal timber is poplar, the 
various species of oak and chestnut. Fruit, includ- 
ing the grape, grows well in this county. It is well 
adapted to cotton, the cereals and the grasses, ex- 
cept blue grass. There are in the county chalybeate 
and sulphur springs. In Henderson county the green 
sand or " marl " occurs. For further information apply 
to Thomas Campbell and James M. Pridy, at Lexing- 
ton; the county seat. 

11. Henry County 

is generally level. There are in this county the South, 
Middle, and North Obion, all in the winter season 
large enough for flat-boats. On these and other 
streams, as well as in the county generally, there is a 
great deal of rich land, and a good deal of water power. 
The Memphis, Clarksville and Louisville Eailroad is 
passing through the county. Cotton, tobacco, and the 



Description of the Counties, 91 

usual grains are grown abundantly. There is a large 
number of flour mills in the county, and a good deal 
of flour is shipped north. 

. 4^mong the many mineral waters in West Tennessee, 
one in this county deserves special attention. In 
boring for salt about twelve miles east of Paris, the 
county seat, and three miles north of the Memphis, 
ClarksviUe, and Louisville Kailroad, the workmen, at 
the depth of three hundred and fifty feet, while boring 
through solid rock, were amazed to find all their tools 
blown out by a rush of water which ascended above 
the tops of the trees. In its present condition, the well 
flows a stream of sulphur, clear as crystal, soft, cold, 
grateful to the palate, and without perceptible weight 
in the stomach. It discharges about fifteen barrels 
per minute, and rises eighteen feet above the ground. 
It is situated at the west base of a beautifully sloping 
mountain, at the east base of which flows Sandy creek, 
affording , pleasant sport to the angler. For further 
information, apply to James Worthen, Esq., at Paris. 

12. Lauderdale. 

The surface of Lauderdale county is rather hilly. 
On the north the Forked Deer divides it from Dyer ; 
on the south the Big Hatchie from Tipton. The 
bottoms on the Mississippi are remarkable for their 
fine soil. In general, however, the soil is varying, 
being very good in some parts, and not so good in 
others. The county seat is Eipley. There is a great 
deal of land for sale, concerning which Dr. Lacky, at 
Eipley, may be applied to for information. Lauder- 
dale is one of the counties which will be greatly bene- 



92 *l!he Twenties see Hand-Book. 

fited by the Soutli Side Eiver Railroad whenever it is 
made. 



13. Madison County. 

. The surface of the county is various ; sometimes 
rolling, at other times level. Jackson is the county 
seat.' Here the Central Mississippi Eailroad termi- 
nates. The Mobile and Ohio Eailroad passes through 
the county, terminating at Columbus, Kentucky. 
There is a good deal of fine land in the county, suit- 
able for the growth of cotton, tobacco, the cereals, and 
all the grasses, except blue grass. The county is well 
adapted to fruit, and especially to the culture of the 
grape ; the scuppenong is one of the surest bearers. 
The county is also well timbered. There has been an 
Immigration Society formed in this county which 
promises to be useful. For further information, ad- 
dress John E. Woolfork, Esq., or Eobert Hurt, Esq., 
both of Jackson. 



14. MoNairy County 

is generally hilly. The soil is freestone and' sandy, 
producing cotton and the cereals and grasses, except 
blue grass. The timber is principally white oak and 
pine. It is well adapted to the growth of the peach. 
On Huggins and other creeks in this county, there are 
are a number of saw mills. The Mobile and Ohio 
Eailroad passes through the county. McNairy county 
is rich in marl. Further information may be obtained 
from thj Hon. F. Hurst, at Purdy, the county seat. 



Description of the ^Counties. <^'}^ 

15. Obion County. 

Obion county, like Dyer county, is remarkable for its 
growth of timber and its superior soiL The JSTasliville 
and Nortliwestern and the Mobile and Ohio Eailroads 
pass tbrougb this county. It is situated on tbe Missis- 
sippi river, and abounds in lakes and bayous. ^'Eeelfoot 
lake, formed by the earthquakes 0^1811-12, is nearly 
twenty miles long, and from three to seven broad. 
Standing in its waters are thousands of dead cypress 
and other trees ; the whole area appearing like ' sunken 
land.' Most of the trees stand erect in shallow water, 
their dead trunks and branches covering the lake. At 
some points, however, they are entirely beneath its 
surface ; and the amateur fisherman, to whom this lake 
is a favorite resort, can, in his boat, glide over the 
dead forest, submerged in the clear waters below. 
There is also plenty of game in the vicinity of the 
lake." Obion county will be greatly benefited by the 
Eiverside Railroad, when constructed. 

-For further information concerning Obion county, 
apply to Major Cochran, at Troy, the county seat, 

t 16. Shelby County. 

The hilly and broken ridge which is soon reached 
in going west from the Tennessee river, and which 
gradually slopes towards the Mississippi, is deserving 
of special note in the county of Shelby, since on a 
portion of the " blufi^' running out of the Mississippi 
into Kentucky, lies the city of Memphis, the com- 
mercial metropolis of the State. For a long distance 
on either side of Memphis, and on either bank of the 



94 ^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

Mississippi river, no point can be found that can rival 
tlie natural advantages of Memphis, a fact which has a 
strong tendency to secure the prosperity of that city. 
Besides the Mississippi and its tributaries in West 
Tennessee, a large portion of the trade of the Arkansas 
and White rivers are centring in that city. Of the 
railroads which exert a special influence on the com- 
merce of the city of Memphis, I mention the Memphis 
and Ohio, the Mississippi and Tennessee, the Memphis 
and Charleston, and the Memphis and Little Eock 
Eailroads, which have their terminus in that city. 
The Mobile and Ohio and the Mississippi Central 
Eailroads, in passing through counties, the commercial 
interests of which are intimately linked with those of 
Memphis, also exert a great, though more indirect in- 
fluence on its prosperity. The railroad to Columbus, 
Ky.; which is to form a closer connection with St. 
Louis and Chicago, is to run through the counties of 
Shelby, Tipton, Lauderdale, Dyer, and Obion. In 
passing through a region so well calculated for dairy 
and vegetable farms, it will furnish the city of Memphis 
with the products of the dairy, the orchard, and the 
vegetable garden, which it now greatly needs. 

Such being the advantages which, thanks to its 
peculiar situation and the enterprising spirit of its 
citizens, the city of Memphis enjoys, or is likely to 
enjoy, it has all the elements which, if properly used, 
will make it the natural capital of the Mississippi 
valley, and will enable it to provide commercially for 
the wants, not only of West Tennessee, but also of 
Arkansas, North Louisiana, of Mississippi, and of 
North Alabama. 



Description of the Counties. 95 

There are 75,000 inhabitants in the city of Memphis, 
about twelve thousand of whom are of German or 
Swiss origin. Among the latter are men of consider- 
able inflaence in the Northern States and in Europe, 
who are likely to give a strong impulse, to the cause 
of immigration in the city of Memphis and in West 
Tennessee generally. 

The growth of Memphis has in past times been 
favored by circumstances which no longer exist. As 
in the dream of Joseph the sun and the moon and the 
stars were paying him respectful homage, so in a good 
degree has been the position which the eighteen 
counties of West Tennessee, and many beyond it, have 
held towards the city of Memphis. It was to them 
almost exclusively the point to which their chief pro- 
duct was to be taken, and from which they were to be 
supplied with every thing they needed. A new era 
has been ushered in. But if cotton is no longer to be 
the chief staple of West Tennessee, ifi the general 
development of the resources of the State is likely to 
give to other points a prominence which till now they 
have not had, the city of Memphis will by no means 
lose by this change. It is true of a large portion of 
Middle as it is of West Tennessee, that in the same 
measure as property passes into the hands of a large 
and industrious middle class, an important impulse is 
given to the enterprise and prosperity of every part of 
the State, and in this prosperity the city of Memphis 
will have no inconsiderable share. 

The county of Shelby is generally level. It is well 
adapted for cotton as well as for corn and the cereals. 
The peach succeeds remarkably well. 



g6 'The Tennessee Hand-Book. 

About nine miles from Memphis, near tlie Memphis 
and Ohio Railroad, are the Raleigh springs. 

For further information concerning Shelby county, 
inquire of Col. M.> B. Eaton, J. E. Merriman, Esq., 
M. Coronna, Esq., and Messrs. Royster, Terezerant & 
Co.; all residing at Memphis. 

17. Tipton County. 

Tipton county forms part of the plateau mentioned 
in the Introduction. In this county the plateau ter- 
minates at Randolph in a bluff as high as that at 
Memphis, but occupying less space. In another por- 
tion of Tipton county there is a mingling of valleys, 
hills and mountains ; but with the exception of a small 
mountain called Stone mountain, the county is very 
fertile. The Mississippi river is the western boundary 
of the county. Its bottoms and the soil on the islands 
of the Mississippi are exceedingly rich. The Big 
Hatchie separates Lauderdale from Tipton county ; it 
is navigable during three months of the year for 
steamboats up to the point where the Memphis and 
Louisville Railroad crosses the Big Hatchie in Hay- 
wood county. In Tipton county, the grains and 
grasses, except blue grass, as well as cotton, succeed 
remarkably well. 

The Memphis and Louisville Railroad passes through 
the southeast corner of Tipton, thirty-six miles from 
Memphis. There are sulphur springs in this county. 
Thousands of acres are offered for sale, and large^ 
farms are to be cut up in order to dispose of them. 
The climate is fine, and fruit succeeds well ; a company 
has been formed for the raising of grapes. Covington 



Description of the Counties, 97 

is the county seat. John T. Douglas, in that town, 
may be applied to for further information ; also, 
Mumford & Sanford, Publishers of Covington Eecord, 
and Col. C. H. Hill. 

18. Weakley County. 

The general face of the county is level. It produces 
cotton well; and also the grains, grasses and oats, but 
is especially -suitable for tolmcco, of which it produces 
1,000 pounds to the acre. The North, South and 
Middle Fork flow in the county. The latter forms the 
line between Weakley aod Gibson. The bottoms on 
these rivers are very fine. The Nashville and North- 
western Eailroad runs through the county, and the 
Memphis and Louisville Eailroad through the south- 
east corner of it ; the Mobile and Ohio Eailroad near 
the line. There is good water-power in the county 
and fine timber; it is a county remarkably well 
adapted for grazing and the raising of hogs ; the fruit 
hardly ever fails. Application for information may be 
made to Dr. C. Underwood at Pierce's Station, on the 
N. O. and Ohio Eailroad, or to P. M. Shelton, County 
Surveyor, Dresden, Tenn. 

Table showing the average value of land per acre in each 
county in West Tennessee, 

Counties. Value of land Counties. Value of land 

per acre. per acre. 

Benton $2 74 Gibson flO 84 

Decatur 3 04 Hardeman 5 77 

Dyer 8 60 Hardin 3 70 

Carroll 8 69 Haywood 8 88 

9 



98 'The 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

Counties. Value of land Counties. Value of land 

per acre. per acre. 

Fayette ,. 8 23 Henderson $4 05 

Henry 5 26 Obion 7 36 

Lauderdale 7 02 Slielby 32 22 

Madison 7 87 Tipton 8 90 

McNairy 3 42 Weakley 6 85 



SUMMARY OF THE RESOURCES OF THE 
THREE SECTIONS. 

I commenced this volume with tlie intention of con- 
fining my description to East Tennessee. Unexpected 
facilities of travel having been extended to me, I re- 
solved to include in my account also Middle and West 
Tennessee. I shall endeavor to make up for the want 
of unity in the plan of the work, which has resulted 
from the fact just mentioned, by presenting the reader 
with a summary of the three sections of the State. 
Subjects which are here but slightly touched will be 
found more fnlly treated in the preceding pages of this 
work. 

1. Rivers. 

The Tennessee river, after rising under the name of 
the Holston in the mountain region of North Carolina, 
and passing through East Tennessee, enters the State 
of Alabama, turns south westward and flows on for 
nearly sixty miles, when it again turns to the west and 
re-enters the State of Tennessee in a northwest course. 
On leaving the State, it passes through Kentucky, and 
flows, at Paducah, into the Ohio river. From John- 
son ville, in Humphreys county, the Tennessee river is 



Description of the Counties, 99 

always navigable to its mouth, and from seven to eight 
months of the year as far as the Muscle Shoals, in 
Alabama, and beyond the Muscle Shoals as far as 
Knoxville. In East Tennessee, the tributaries flowing 
into the Holston or Tennessee river are, the Watauga, 
the Nolachucky, the French Broad, the Big Pigeon, the 
Little Tennessee, and the Hiawassee, with its confluent, 
the Ocoee, and from the west the Clinch river. In 
Middle Tennessee the Duck river flows into the Ten- 
nessee river from the east. The Clinch is navigable 
during about seven months of the year as far as Clin- 
ton, in Anderson county. 

The Cumberland river, which has its head-warters 
in the mountain region of Kentucky and of Tennessee, 
enters the State of Tennessee in a southwestern course, 
and then turns northeastward and enters Kentucky. 
About two hundred and fifty miles of the Cumberland 
river are navigable from seven to eight months of the 
year. The Caney Fork, a tributary of the Cumber- 
land, is navigable for steamboats about fifty miles 
during a considerable portion of the year. 

.The Mississippi, the western boundary of the State, 
is navigable for steamboats during the whole year. 
Three of its tributaries are navigable during part of 
the year : the Forked Deer, one hundred and fifty miles, 
the Big Hatchie, one hundred miles, and the Obion, 
sixty. On several of the smaller streams, flat boats 
and rafts are extensively used. 

It is evident from this account of the rivers of the 
State of Tennessee, that this State is justly distinguished 
for its inland navigation. 



lOO 'J!he Twenties see Hand-Booh 

2. The Climate. 

The summers of the Unaka chain of mountains are 
in temperature like those of Canada;* but, unlike 
Canada, the winters last; on an average, only from two 
to three months of the year. The average summer 
heat of Knoxville, in East Tennessee, is about that of 
Philadelphia ; yet, in consequence of the higher eleva- 
tion, the summers in the valley of East Tennessee are 
far more agreeable than those of the Middle States. 
The winters are invigorating, but comparatively short. 
The Cumberland mountain is noted for the remarkable 
clearness of its atmosphere and the healthfulness of its 
climate. The highlands of Middle Tennessee, in point 
of salubrity and the purity of their freestone waters, 
are hardly inferior to the Cumberland mountain. The 
summers of the '' basin" during a portion of the year 
are oppressive, but the atmosphere in general is mild 
and agreeable. The climate of West Tennessee is 
moist, and during two or three months of the year 
oppressively hot, but unhealthy only where the 
swamps and the thick forests in the river bottoms 
have yet free scope. There is more rain falliag in 
East Tennessee than in either of the other sections, 



* Professor Safford, to wliom I am in part indebted for my 
account of tlie Unaka cliain of mountains, is in the possession of 
a manuscript work, prepared . by himself, on the Geology and 
Physical Geography of the State. It is the result of many years 
of labor. The materials were collected in part at the expense of 
the State* The appearance of the work depends on the aid of the 
Legislature. Its publication is of great importance to the cause 
of science. 



Description of the Counties, loi 

yet it is but at rare intervals that in tlie latter droughts 
prove generally fatal. In winter, alternations of snow 
and of rain occur in all three of the sections, especially 
in the months of January and February. Spring 
weather may be said to open the latter part of Feb- 
ruary, or the beginning of March ; but severe frosts 
occur not unfrequently in April, and sometimes in 
May, proving ruinous to the peach and the graps 
crop. The higher localities, and the banks of rivers, 
suffer from them less.* 

3. Manufactures. 

^ The trials through which the people of Tennessee 
have passed, and which threatened to prostrate their 
energies, have in many instances imparted to them a 



* The following testimony, one of many now before me, is from 
the pen of Mr. W. W. Powell, of Cumberland county : "My first 
knowledge of this county dates back to May, 1860, at which time 
I came here apparently a confirmed invalid, made so by bronchitis, 
afifection of the kidneys, chronic rheumatism, liver complaint, 
jaundice, and general debility. From all these difficulties I was 
in a few months entirely relieved, with the single exception of 
bronchitis, from which I was so far relieved as to be entirely 
exempt, up to the present time, from suffering. My residence 
here during the entire summer of 1860 secured to me a degree of 
health and strength never before enjoyed, and which I have in no 
measure lost. I have now, at the age of sixty-two, the elasticity 
of boyhood, and the firm step and ruddy complexion of sound 
health. Under these circumstances, you will not be surprised at 
my unqualified testimony in favor of this climate. I have care- 
fully watched its influence upon the condition of others, as well 
as my own, and have often questioned what disease it, in connec- 
tion with a free and persistent use of our chalybeate waters, will 
not cure, or at least greatly alleviate." 



I02 l^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book. 

spirit of determination and of enterprise rarely mani- 
fested before. Many of their leading men are earnestly 
engaged in pointing out the necessity of their entering 
upon new courses of industry adapted to the new cir- 
cumstances in which they are placed. They are fairly 
aroused to the fact that they must no longer send away 
their raw material in order to have it returned to them 
by the northern manufacturer at what is to them an 
enormous loss, and they earnestly advocate the estab- 
lishing of manufactures, so' that their raw products 
may be worked within the State, and that an abundant 
home-market may be furnished to those who are 
engaged in other pursuits. They ask why, in a 
country which is peculiarly adapted to the growing 
of sheep, they yet should buy their woollen goods 
from the factories of the North, paying the mer- 
chant for selling them to them, and the railroad for 
bringing them on. They raise the cotton, they say, 
pick it, gin it, put it up in bags, and then pay one- 
third its value in freights and commissions in sending 
it abroad, — pay for the manufacturing of it, pay 
the jobber for selling it back to them, and again 
pay the railroads for bringing it; and they inquire 
"whether a wiser course than this may not be pursued. 
They point to their beeves pasturing on a thousand 
hills, and they ask why from year to year they should 
pack up the hides of these animals and send them to 
the North, to be returned to them in the shape of 
boots or shoes, for which they pay a large profit to 
every one who has touched the hide since it was taken 
from the ox ; they call to mind that they have the 
ore, the timber, the water-power, and a magnificent 



Description of the Counties, 103 

climate, and they v/onder why, in spite of all this, they 
buy their plows, axes, and hoes, their castings, much 
of their bar iron, and all their railroad iron, from 
beyond the Ohio ; and they come to the conclusion, so 
well and pithily expressed by one of these interpreters 
of the general need,* that they are too poor to do 
without manufactories ; that the greater the losses are 
which they have sustained during the last few years, 
the more necessary is it to give up a course which 
makes them poorer every day. 

In full harmony with these views and recommenda- 
tions is the report of the legislative committee, to whom 
was referred the memorial of certain northern capi- 
talists and manufacturers, who had asked for a charter 
to carry on all manner of manufactories in Tennessee. 
The committee report in the af&rmative, and, in sum- 
ming up, present the amount Tennessee pays annually to 
northern and to other manufacturers and mechanics 
beyond her limits : "Assuming the average cotton crop 
of Tennessee to be 200,000 bales, and the price fifteen 
cents per pound, our people realize for the raw material 
$13,500,000. This is manufactured in the Korth, and 
elsewhere out of this State, and returned to us in prints, 
brown and bleached cotton cloths or fabrics, of which 
four yards to the pound may be regarde(? as a mean 
average, making an aggregate of 360,000,000 yards. 
This, at fifteen cents per pound, makes the sum of 
$54,000,000. Now, if we deduct the cost of material, 



* Colonel A. S. Colyar, in an address delivered at Winchester, 
and having for its result the huilding of a hlast furnace and nail 
factory. 



I04 T!he Tennessee Hand-Book. 

we have $40,500,000, wHch is tlie sum paid on tTie 
premium given by our people to encourage the labor, 
skill; and capital in other States : 

*'To Recapitulate, 

For cotton fabrics $40,500,000 

For woollen fabrics 15,000,000 

For boots and shoes 5,000,000 

For furniture 2,500,000 

For agricultural implements 1,500,000 

For hardware 2,500;a00 

"A commonwealth thus annually drained can never 
be other than a pauper State, whatever may be its 
native resources. We believe the time has come for 
the Legislature to cut the Gordian kuot of our depend- 
ence on the labor and skill of others. By transplant- 
ing their operations, skill, capital, and machinery to 
our own soil, we would speedily arrest this exhausting 
process, and by building up manufacturing towns and 
villages in our State, quadruple the value of real estate, 
stimulate agriculture in all its branches, and turn im- 
migration to our valleys and mouDtains.""^ 



* At the meetings of the American Immigration Association in 
the city of Nashville, the loss sustained from want of manufac- 
tories has been frequently discussed. I was much interested by 
statements made by Mr. W. I. Emry, on the subject of broom- 
handles. None are made in Tennessee, though cottonwood and 
sugar maple, and other timber suitable for the manufacture of 
broomhandles, is abundant. Freight per thousand amounts to 
eight dollars ; the original cost is from ten dollars to fifteen dol- 
lars per thousand. It can be made in Tennessee as cheaply as 



Description of the Counties* 105 

4. Agricultur©» 

The system wliich almost exclusively favored the 
raising of cotton, and which discouraged the establish- 
ing of manufactures, did also interfere wi*h the remu- 
nerative development of the agricultural resources of 
the State. There being but little demand at home for 
the produce of the country, it had to be exported to 
distant markets in the shape of cotton, grain, or cattle. 
The result was as sad as it was unavoidable. The soil 
became more and more impoverished from a neglect 
of the processes of manuring, by which the elements 
of fertility, which are lost in the course of production, 
are returned to it. This defective treatment of the soil 
has not escaped the notice of thinking men. The 
agricultural bureau especially, which has existed for 
a number of years, had frequently urged the necessity 
of applying the principles of science to the pursuits of 
agriculture, and there were not a few who heeded 
these counsels, and whose agricultural labors proved 
highly remunerative. Since the war especially, there 
are portions of the State where a great change for the 
better has taken place, and where the cereal crops 
produced far exceeded those of former years. Yet in 
a very considerable portion of the State the soil is 
worked carelessly and superficially, and Tennessee, in 
consequence of it, is dependent upon other States for 



anywhere in the Nortli. Broom corn grown in Tennessee is in 
quality and quantity twenty -five per cent, better than in other 
States. The demand is very great. The expense of connecting 
with a manufacturing establishment the apparatus necessary to 
make broomhandles would be about one hundred dollars. 



io6 'T^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

products wliicli sTie is more than able to raise herself. 
Under these circumstances, It is but natural that great 
importance should be attached to the introduction of a 
farming population who from their childhood have 
been accustomed to an economic and thorough system 
of farming. Still it ought to be borne in mind that 
they can only aid in the work which is to be accom- 
plished. 

The Commissioner of Immigration of the State of 
South Carolina, in dwelling upon this subject, refers to 
the fact that there was a time when labor in South 
Carolina was hardly respected as it deserves to be. It 
is now fashionable, he adds, and he who works hardest 
is considered the greatest gentleman. South Carolina 
is not altogether alone in this respect. The planters, 
who in this State have taken the place their overseers 
formerly occupied, have found no difficulty in obtain- 
ing faithful laborers, and in making good crops. But 
they are thus far the exceptions rather than the rule, 
and there is much room for improvement. In a late 
communication from Prussia, the writer dwells on 
the fact that the large land-owners who, to a great ex- 
tent, belong to the aristocracy, are generally living on 
their estates and are engaged in superintending their 
cultivation, while the sons of other land-owners, or of 
prominent bankers and merchants, after having past 
through a scientific course of instruction, spend from 
two to three years in superintending some of the large 
estates referred to. They obtain in this way that 
practical knowledge which they will themselves need 
when they take possession of their own estates. An 
example worthy of imitation. 



Description of the Counties. 107 

5. Security of Life and Property. 

The remarks I have made concerning the security 
of life and j)ropertj in East Tennessee apply, in a great 
measure, to Middle and West Tennessee. The few sec- 
tions of the State, where occasional lawlessness still 
prevails, are easily avoided. Lieutenant-Governor 
Cox, of Maryland, lately travelled through a consider- 
able portion of Tennessee. When invited to address 
the Legislature, he held the following language : 
" Newspaper paragraphs have made you out the most 
disorderly, desperate and dangerous population im- 
aginable. Should a quiet gentleman be rash enough 
to meditate a visit to Tennessee, he is admonished in 
solemn language to beware of bushwackers and cut- 
throats by the way; never to move without his arms; 
be sure 'to deposit his revolver under his pillow at 
night, and always to sleep, if he can, with one eye 
open. All that I can say is, that no spot of earth 
was ever, in my judgment, more foully slandered. It 
has been my privilege to visit many of your towns 
and rural districts, to traverse on horseback the lone- 
liest and most retired recesses of your forests and 
mountains, to sit down by the firesides and social 
boards of the humblest and poorest of your citizens, 
as well as the most prosperous, and I have yet to meet 
with the first unkind word or look, or hear of the first 
act of violence or even rudeness. A more amiable, quiet, 
orderly, honest, generous, hospitable people it has 
never been my good fortune to meet, either in Europe 
or in America, and it gives me pleasure to offer this 
merited and just tribute, now and here, in the presence 



io8 'J'he Tennessee Hand-Book, 

of Tennesseans, as I shall have occasion to do, where 
public opinion has been perverted bj misstatements 
to a different faith." 

The reader of these pages has doubtless received 
the impression that I, like the speaker just quoted, 
have been brought in contact during the last few 
months with all classes of society in every part of 
the State. My experience in many respects coincides 
with that of the Lieutenant-Governor. 

6. The General Character of the Pcptilatioii. 

In drawing an outline of the character of the people 
of Tennessee, I shall confine myself to such features 
of it as may justly interest those who propose to settle 
in the State. 

Tennessee, like other States, is not without a con- 
siderable number of those who lay claim to a high 
position in society, but who are wanting in the qualities 
by which alone that claim can be sustained ; nor is it 
without another class who make great professions of 
unselfishness, but who avail themselves of every op- 
portunity to overreach those with whom they are 
brought in contact \ yet Tennessee may also justly 
boast of numbering among its citizens many who, by 
their frankness, kindness and modesty, impress the 
stranger who meets them with the conviction, that his 
confidence in them is well placed, and that they will 
safely guide his course. It is to a portion of this 
latter class that in these pages I am endeavoring to 
draw the attention of my readers. 

The great mass of the population of the State is de- 
scended from a Virginian or North Carolina ancestry. 



Immigration — Colonies, 109 

In tbe more elevated portions of East and Middle 
Tennessee the mountaineer is satisfied with the produce 
of the few acres he cultivates and the game his rifle 
obtains for him. In a large portion of East Tennessee 
as well as of Middle and of West Tennessee, the pro- 
gress of civilization has had the effect of introducincr 
somewhat generally a higher degree of intellectual 
culture and those habits of life which wealth both 
creates and satisfies. 

As for European immigrants, there are Irish in the 
larger cities and in the towns along the railroads; 
English, Scotch and Welsh principally in the minmg 
districts ; Germans in the larger cities, but also in 
some of *the rural districts. 

The great mass of the citizens of Tennessee are 
favorable to immigration, and are likely to treat the 
immigrant with courtesy and kindness. In this respect 
differences of political opinion have but little weight. 
Since my return to Tennessee, in the beginning of 
1867, I have found that gentlemen who hold political 
opinions diagonally opposite the one from the other 
are still ready to join with each other in building up 
the State by introducing into it capital and an indus- 
trious immigrant population. 

7. Immigration. — Colonies. 

For various reasons the subject of immigration has 
not received, in this State, the consideration which it 
deserves. It is only within the last few years that 
general attention has been drawn to it, and that the 
impression has become more and more general, that 
immigration is to be a powerful agent, by the means 

10 



no '^he.T^ennessee Hand-Book, "^ 

of wHcli the State is to enter upon a new course of 
prosperity. Wtiat Professor Waterhouse says of Mis- 
souri, may be as readily said of this State. Tennessee 
needs able-bodied men; the physical energies of a 
healthy man in the prime of life are appraised at 
$1,000. Every robust immigrant, however unblest 
with the goods of fortune, enriches the State with the 
wealth of sinew. Our broad acres need the labors of 
myriads of workmen." To the North and to the 
Northwest this opulence of muscle has been so bene- 
ficial, because, to a very great extent, it has been 
guided by intelligence. The immigration which 
reaches this country from Europe, fills the workshop 
with skilled labor, the stores and counting-houses with 
enterprising merchants, the banking establishments 
with financiers. It devotes itself successfully to the 
cause of religion and learning ; it buys the lands v/hich 
are offered for sale, and works them in a thorough and 
remunerative way ; it introduces improved fruit and 
superior kinds of cattle, hogs and sheep ; it puts 
machinery in the place of muscle ; it covers the hill- 
side with the grape for which this State is so well 
adapted, and converts unproductive regions into fertile 
lands, or it works for wages till it is able to purchase 
a home. The Commissioner of Immigration for the 
State of South Carolina, after briefly reviewing what 
this immigrant population has done for the State of 
Minnesota within ten years, adds, touchingly : " If our 
beloved old State could by any effort gain in the next 
ten years such an increase of population and agricul- 
tural riches, she might almost forget her present 
troubles as a heavy dream, from which her Heavenly 



Minerals. 1 1 1 

Father had decreed her a joyous awakening." Words 
which will find an echo in many a heart. 

To obtain such an immigration, the holders of large 
tracts of land can do much ; as far as possible they 
ought to advertise them in a body, and thus open the 
way for the immigrating of colonies. " Let every 
landholder make his own trade and sell his own 
lands, but let it be known far and wide by newspaper 
advertisements ajid by circulars, that in a given 
county or counties there are so many thousands of 
acres to be sold to small buyers, and that these lands 
are contiguous to each other. One attractive feature 
of this method is, that it gives an assurance of earnest- 
ness and good feeling towards immigrants, which the 
latter will fully appreciate. Men like to settle where 
they feel that their presence will be acceptable."* Where 
this course has in part, at least, been adopted, immi- 
gration has already commenced to direct its course. 

8. Minerals. 

The following statements are presented as supple- 
mentary to the account given of the mineral wealth of 
Tennessee on page 48. They are principally taken 
from the Geology of Professor Safford : 

/t-ow.— The iron region of East Tennessee includes 
the counties of Johnson, Carter, Sullivan, Washington, 
Greene, Cocke, Sevier, Blount, Monroe, Polk, and the 

* Quoted from an editorial of Mr. Mercer, editor of the Press and 
Times, published in Nashville. Mr. Wm. L* Nance, of Nashville, 
is earnestly striving to carry out the suggestions of Mr. Mercer, 
as far as his lands in Cheatham county are concerned ; several 
of his neighbors are ready to join him. 



112 'Hhe l^ennessee Hand-Book, 

eastern part of McMinn; in Middle and West Ten- 
nessee the counties of Stewart, Montgomery, Benton. 
Humphreys, Dickson, Decatur, Perry, Hickman, Lewis, 
Hardin, Wayne, and Lawrence.* 

Cop'per. — The mica slate group, in which the Duck- 
town mines occur, covers extensive areas. The largest 
of these commences in the southeastern part of Wash- 
ington and runs northeastward through Carter and 
Johnson counties; copper has also, been found in 
Cumberland county, in Middle Tennessee. 

Lead is found in almost every county in East and 
in several in Middle and West Tennessee, but it has 
not yet been sufficiently tested to determine whether 
it can be worked remuneratively. 

Zinc. — From Mossy creek, in Jefferson county, in a 
southwest direction through Knox county as far as 
Loudon, on the Tennessee river, zinc ore is found at 
numerous points. 

Gold has been found to some extent in Blount, 
Monroe, and Polk counties. From 1831 to 1853 there 
was deposited in the United States Mint gold to the 
value of $46,023. 

Aluminum has been manufactured at Paris, in Henry 
county, and can be manufactured in all parts of the 
State. Alloyed with iron, it forms a very hard steel. 

Coal. — There are coal fields in the counties of Clai- 
borne, Campbell, Anderson, Eoane, Ehea, Hamilton, ' 

T 

* The iron ore at Crab Orcliard, in Carter county, is magnetic, 
according to the test instituted hy Mr. John Caldwell, whose early 
labors in bringing the copper ore of Polk county into notice are 
justly deserving of praise. 



Minerals, 113 

Marion, Franklin, Grundy, Warren, "Van Buren, 
"White, Putnam, Fentress, Overton, Scott, Morgan, and 
Bledsoe. 

Goal Oil occurs in Overton, Fentress, and Dickson. 

Lignite is an imperfect variety of mineral coal. It 
will acquire value only wheff tlie Mississippi bottoms 
can no longer furnish wood, and when our coal fields 
shall have yielded up their treasures. Extensive beds 
occur in Lauderdale, Tipton, and the northern part of 
Shelby. 

Marble. — The most.important species are. 

1. The variegated, fossiliferous marble in East, 
Middle, and West Tennessee. In East Tennessee — in 
Granger, Jefferson, Knox, Hawkins, Koane, Bradley, 
Monroe, Meigs, McMinn. In Middle Tennessee — in 
Franklin and White. In West Tennessee — in Henry 
and Benton. 

2. The grayish-white marble in Knox and McMinn. 

3. The Magnesian marble in Claiborne, Hancock, 
Jefferson and other counties. 

4. The black marble in Jefferson, etc. 

5. The Breccia and conglomerate marble in Greene, 
Sevier, Blount, and»Monroe. 

Greensand or marl occurs in Henderson, Hardin, 
McNairy, Hardeman, and other counties of West Ten- 
nessee. Highly valuable as a fertilizer. 

Salt. — In Hawkins county, in East, and in White 
and Cumberland counties, in Middle Tennessee. 

Nitre or saltpetre. — In many caves and rock houses 
in East and Middle Tennessee. 

Epsom salt, — In Sevier and other counties. 



114 ^^^ "Tennessee Hand-Book, 

Gypsum. — In Sumner and Cumberland counties, in 
Middle Tennessee. 

Oxyd of Manganese. — In the northern part of Cocke 
county and in Cumberland county. 
Borax in Cumberland county. 

Mineral waters are found in all the three sections. 
The most important are, sulphur, chalybeate, and Ep- 
som salt springs and alum water. 

Kydraulic limestone is found in Knox county in 
East, in Wayne county in Middle, and in Hardin and 
Decatur counties in West Tennessee. 

Buhrstone or millstone grit occurs in East Tennessee 

in Claiborne, Jefferson, Knox, and Carter coimties, and 

in Sumner and Davidson counties in Middle Tennessee. 

Roofing slate, found in the mountains of Polk; 

Monroe, Blount, Sevier, Cocke, etc. 

Flagging stones are found in Morgan connty. East 
Tennessee, and also in Hardin, in West Tennessee. 

Sand for glass-making, potters and fire clays, build- 
i7ig materials, grindstones^ whetstones, &c., have been 
noticed in greater or less abundance, and in many 
cases of excellent quality, in different parts of the 
State. 

Clay forms the substratum of a large portion of the 
State. Brick of good quality is made of it exten- 
sively. 



Railroads, ' 115 

9. 

Tahle showing the various Railroads in Tennessee. 

Length In Entire 

Name. Tennessee. Length. 

Miles. Miles. 

Nashville and Chattanooga 131 151 

Memphis and Charleston 100 287 

Mississippi and Tennessee 10 99 

Mississippi Central 52J 

East Tennessee and Georgia 112 

East Tennessee and Virginia 180 ...... 

Winchester and Alabama..... 42 

McMinnville and Manchester 34 

Tennessee and Alabama 57 

Memphis and Ohio 131 

Memphis, Clarksville and Louisville 88 

Mobile and Ohio...... 118 496 

Edgefield and Kentucky 47 

Central Southern 48 

Eogersville and Jefferson 15J 

Nashville and Northwestern 164f ' 171 

Knoxville and Kentucky 65 

Cincinnati, Cumberland Grap and 

Charleston 12} 



l,354i . 1,204 

By an act of the Legislature additional aid has 
been extended to the -following railroads, partly 
because they have been but recently completed, and 
have of course not been able to make any profit 
during their completion. 

To the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad, .in 
order to be enabled to increase its rolling stock and to 



ii6 ^he Tennessee Hand-Book, 

construct a branch railroad from Huntington to 
Jackson. 

To the Knoxville and Kentucky. 

To the Southwestern. This road is constructed as 
far as McMinnville, and when completed will pass 
through the counties of White, Putnam and Overton 
to the State line. 

To the Memphis and Charleston. 

To the Mississippi Central. 

To the Mississippi and Tennessee. 

To the Tennessee and Pacific. This railroad will 
form a direct connection between Kashville and Knox- 
ville, and will pass through the counties of Davidson, 
Wilson, Smith, White, Cumberland, Eoane and Ander- 
son to the city of Knoxville. 

To the East Tennessee and Western l^orth Carolina 
Pailroad. This railroad is to connect the East Tennes- 
see and Virginia Eailroad by the means of a railroad 
running through Carter county with the system of rail- 
roads in the State of North Carolina. 

To the Edgefield and Kentucky Eailroad Company, 
to aid them in building a depot in Nashville, and in 
the construction of the Evansville, Henderson and 
Nashville Eailroad Company. The latter road passes 
through large coal beds in Kentucky. 

To the East Tennessee and Yirginia Eailroad 
Company. 

By a recent act of the General Assembly of the State, 
certain mining companies at Ducktown, Polk county, 
of which Julius E. Eaht^ Esq., is Superintendent, are 
authorized to issue $500,000 in mortgaged bonds for 
the pu] pose of building a railroad from Cleveland to 



Development of Resources, 1 1 y 

tlie copper mines, a distance of forty miles. The com- 
panies have pledged the whole amount of their mineral 
wealth for the solvency of the bonds. 

10. The Harmonious Development of the Resources of the 
State a Basis of its Permanent Prosperity. 

In the remarks I am about to present to the reader, 
I hope to establish, as briefly as I may, the fact that 
by the removal of the causes which in past times have 
produced antagonisms in point of industry between 
the different sections of the country, the foundation is 
laid for harmony of feeling and united action between 
all of them. They are strictly in keeping with the 
general object of this work, since they point out a 
basis for the permanent prosperity of the State, in 
establishing which the capitalist, who is investing his 
means, and the immigrant, who furnishes his labor or 
his skill, are taking a part. 

Trench, in one of his Hulsean lectures, draws a 
striking picture of a man whose powers are harmoni- 
ously developed. In that picture the intellectual and 
physical powers are represented as subordinate to the 
Divine Spirit which dwells in the man he describes, 
but this subordination is such that it does not inter- 
fere with the sphere of action which belongs to each 
of the powers. If either of the other powers are 
dealt with unjustly, the proper harmony would cease 
to exist, and serious suffering in every part would be 
the result. In accord with this picture is the con- 
clusion at which Dr. Guthrie, of Scotland, arrived in 
his labors among the poor, as stated by himself at the 
session of the Evangelical Alliance, lately held at 



ii8 ^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

Amsterdam. He liad taken charge of a poor, ragged 
boy; though but seven years of age; his face was 
wrinkled like that of an old man, because for years he 
had been in a condition approaching starvation. "I 
put," said the Doctor, " porridge into his stomach and 
light into his mind, and in a few months the wrinkles 
had disappeared and the cheeks began to bloom!" 
Now, there is a striking analogy existing in this re- 
spect between a nation and the individual man. In 
the State we have the same powers : spiritual, intel- 
lectual and physical. In a State, if it is to be in a 
healthy condition, the spiritual must rule. A State 
goes to ruin if it fails to recognize the existence and 
the government of God ; yet this regard for the spiritual 
element is not to interfere with its intellectual and 
physical life ; for if no proper attention be given to 
these, seeds are sown, which, if not eradicated, will 
afiect the whole and accelerate its ruin. We must 
attend to the physical resources of the State, in order to 
have its spiritual and intellectual life in a good con- 
dition ; and we must attend to its spiritual and intel- 
lectual life, in order to be permanently benefited by 
the development of the physical resources of the State. 
A brief reference to the late history and the present 
condition of this State may serve to illustrate these 
views. For many years Tennessee, in common with 
the Southern States generally, has been under the in- 
Quence of a system which depressed her energies. The 
raising of cotton by the employment of slaves enriched 
the few, while it left the great mass of the people with- 
out a proper stimulus to action. The comparative 
neglect of the manufacturing, mining, and agricultural 



Development of Resources. up 

interests of tlie State had an injurious effect on the 
trade of the country. The planter, in transacting his 
affairs, frequently benefited the merchants and manu- 
facturers of the North or of Europe more than those 
at homC; and his example was followed by many who 
did not belong to his class. Such a system, while it 
left the mineral wealth of the State and its water-power 
almost untouched, and while it developed its agricul- 
ture and its commerce partially and unequally, neces- 
sarily prevented a healthy condition of its intellectual 
and spiritual interests. It directly opposed the former 
in the case of the colored population ; but its pernicious 
influence reached far beyond them. By a strange 
invisible spell it greatly discouraged all general intel- 
lectual effort. Many portions of the State had no 
schools, and did not want to have them. In other 
portions, men who were not thought to be good for 
any thing else, were thought to be good enough to act 
as teachers. Eeligion also suffered, because the good 
impressions made at times could not be followed up 
by an examination of the Scriptures, because those 
who had received them did not know how to read. 
But a new era has been ushered in. By the abolition 
of slavery the way has- been opened for a radical 
change. In the pithy language of the Hon. Horace 
Maynard . " The era of vast territories held by individ- 
uals, and the emigrating of our young men to other 
States, is supplanted by an era of small farms, and of 
an abundant immigration." The action of the Legisla- 
ture of the State, in harmony with his Excellency the 
Governor, strongly marks the character of this new 
era. While it has endeavored to put the internal im- 



no ^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

provement, the working of tlie resources and t"h< 
finances of the State on a sound basis, it has also 
opened free schools in every part of the State, which 
are to furnish instruction to every one of its children, 
^' laying thus a foundation deep and broad for the de- 
velopment of our resources under the guidance of 
enlightened intelligence.""^ 

The bright promise which is thus presented to us 
is but imperfectly realized by many. The errors of 
the past, sanctioned by habit, at least, are not easily 
discerned and still less easily given up. And while 
so many things are passing away and so many new 
things coming in, it is often difl&cult to form the right 
judgment with regard to them, or to determine what 
course it is our duty to pursue. 

Many years ago Christian Carriger, whose name is 
well known to some of my friends in Carter county, in 
East Tennessee, came to a friend of mine: "You 

* Words with which the Eev. Dr. Sears, General Agent for the 
Peabody Fund, closed one of his addresses. Dr. Sears is visiting 
aU the Southern States, studying what is the best way of advanc- 
ing the cause of popular education by the use of the fund, and 
explaining to the professors, teachers, and people the purpose he 
has in view, and the means by w.hich it is to be accomplished. 
The fund, though large, is too small to establish schools in aU 
parts of the State, and will therefore be used for aiding and en- 
couraging local organizations. The Board of Trustees propose 
that, whenever the citizens of any city or town subscribe four 
thousand dollars for the purpose of free schools, they will subscribe 
one thousand or any other sum in the same proportion. By this , 
meaais the Peabody Fund will be a continual resource for the 
encouragement of local eflForts. As a further means of rendering 
common schools effective, especial encouragement and liberal aid 
will be given to normal schools in each State. 



Development of Resources. 121 

know," saM lie, " that I lived here when we went forty 
miles to mill, with our oxen and wagon. I hunted 
deer ; wife and daughters made all our clothing, the 
big wheel, the little wheel, and the reel, and the cotton 
cards being all that was needed; we found dye-stuff- 
in our woods, taking it from the bark of the trees ; we 
tanned our leather in a trough, and made our shoes 
ourselves ; wife could make a good thread button for 
the collar ; vest striped up and down, made of cotton 
thread 1100 fine ; buckskin pants and hunting-shirt ; 
straw hat in summer, and woollen hat in winter ; the 
wool we sheared from our kimbs ; good health, never 
sick; no law-suits, no churches, no schools, no still- 
houses; owed nobody any thing; no stores, no money ; 
we traded in bear skins, deer skins, fox skins, musk- 
rat skins; the smaller articles answering the purposes 
of change. Then came the merchant, and we all got 
into debt ; then the lawyer, and we all got at law ; the 
doctor, and we all got sick ; the preacher, and we all 
got religion." This proved too much for old Christian 
Carriger. He went in search of some secluded spot, 
where he hoped to be beyond reach of the changes he 
so much disliked, and there he died. It is plain that 
Christian Carriger did not understand the age in which 
he lived. He had forgotten that in all changes there 
is evil mingling with good, and he had not learned 
to prove all things, and to hold fast that which is 
good. The error of Christian Carriger is that of many 
in our own day. Although the experience of many 
years has proved that the health of the State is seri- 
ously impaired as long as one class is favored at the 
expense of all the others, they still oppose a develop- 



122 ^he 'Tennessee Hand-Booh 

ment of the State, whicli will give ns population, in- 
telligence, immigration, and a healthy working of all 
the interests of the State. 

Yet the example of Christian Carriger may also 
serve as a lesson to us all. We live in a time of in- 
tense excitement. Much of that which we have 
thought established for centuries to come is now chaos ; 
yet in the midst of this chaos we are to take our 
position and we are to act our part. If, like Christian 
Carriger, we are ourselves at times in danger of mis- 
taking the spirit of our time, how patient ought we to 
be towards those who seem to fall into that error. 

A brief reference to the history of Germany, sug^ 
gested by an interesting series of letters published 
by Henry C. Carey,"^ may serve further to illustrate 
the views here presented. Europe has occasionally 
to learn from us, but we may also at times take a 
lesson from Europe. 

At the time I left Germany, in 1828, it was a loose 
confederacy of some thirty-five States, with industrial 
interests, many of them in direct opposition the one 
to the other. On arriving in America, I found the 
people of the United States, thanks to the protective 
policy that prevailed, enjoying the advantages they 
derived from a peaceful and most profitable extension 
of domestic commerce. In 1867, thirty-nine years 
later, I find Germany, under the lead of Prussia 
firmly united, the practical working 'of its school 

* Rt&construction : Industrial, Fmancial and Political. Letters 
to tlie Hon. Henry Wilson, Senator from Massachusetts. By 
H. C. Carey. PMladelpliia, 18G7. 



Education, 1 23 

system occupying a very higli rank, and her people 
so well provided with money that they could come to 
our aid at the time of the war, and all this owing in a 
great degree to the fact that at an early day, by the 
removing of all that opposed a harmonious develop- 
ment of the industrial interests, they had opened the 
way for that intelligence, union, and strength which 
now characterize that country. America, on the 
other hand, by adopting industrial systems at war 
with each other, alienated one section of the country 
from the other, and seriously interfered with the pros- 
perity of the State. It is gratifying to know that we 
have it now in our power to adopt a different policy, 
and by the harmonious development of our resources, 
lay the foundation for that identity of industrial inter- 
ests in the different sections of the State which will 
have a powerful effect on the intellectual and political 
life of the nation. 

11. Education. 

The cause of education in the State of Tennessee 
has received a new impulse by the system of free 
schools which has been established by an act of the 
General Assembly. In accordance with that law, a 
general superintendent of education has been elected, 
and by him county superintendents have been ap- 
pointed in every district. The General Superintendent 
is General John Eaton, Jr. His past experience in the 
field of education, and his earnest devotion to the 
cause, eminently fit him for the place he holds. His 
purpose appears to be to take advantage of all the 
educational systems in the country, rejecting what has 



124 The "Tennessee Hand-Book. 

been found defective, and adopting whatever is best 
for Tennessee. I had the pleasure of being with the 
county superintendents at their last meeting in the city 
of Nashville. As a body, they are well qualified for 
the work which they have undertaken. They have to 
surmount great difficulties. A law is a dead letter, 
unless it is sustained by the general spirit of the 
people, and those who are not educated themselves 
are not always apt to appreciate the importance of 
education. The untiring exertions of the general 
superintendent and county superintendents, aided by 
many intelligent citizens, will, however, not fail to 
secure encouraging progress. The schools are to be 
equally accessible to every child in the State. 

Among the immigrants who of late have moved into 
the State, there are many who appreciate intelligeace 
and education. Again and again the question is 
addressed to me from the North and the West, whether 
Tennessee is likely to furnish the same privileges of 
education which are enjoyed there, and on the answer 
I may be able to give, the choice of the inquirers with 
regard to their new home greatly depends. 

In my account of East Tennessee I have spoken of 
the East Tennessee University. The University at 
Nashville is also a State institution. There are 
schools and academies of a high order at Lebanon, 
Columbia, Trenton, Jackson, •Clarksville, etc. Eev. 
Dr. Cobleigh is now at the head of the institution at 
Athens. 

Female academies of some note are at Winchester, 
in Franklin county, and the Washington Female Col- 
lege, in Washington county. 



Religion. 125 

I received too late for insertion here a series of 
remarks hj the Hon. O. P. Temple, which he made at 
an educational meeting held in the city of Knoxville, 
and which he has kindly communicated to me in ac- 
cordance with my earnest request. .In these remarks, 
Judge Temple establishes the fact that the foundations 
of society in Bast Tennessee were laid on education 
and morality ; that they were the nurseries of learn- 
ing, at an early day, not only for the State of Tennes- 
see, but for the South and West, and that there also was 
established the first public school, and, possibly, the 
first three west of the Alleghanies and in the Missis- 
sippi valley. The series of letters, from which I have 
made an extract in the course of the account given by 
me of the city of Knoxville, are also from the pen of 
Chancellor Temple* {See Appendix) 

12. Religion. 

The sphere of religion has in Tennessee not re- 
mained beyon'd the influence of the industrial antago- 
nisms which for years have alienated one section of 
the country from the other, though in many cases 
those who contended ngainst each other have been 
brought near to each other in the furnace of afiliction. 
In the same measure as the sense of a community of 
interests becomes more and more extended, the way is 
opened for that inward union of which the people stand 
in need, and without which society hardly can be said 
to exist. Much of the immigration which is now mov- 
ing to the State is likely to advance the interests of 
this union. Strangers to the differences which have 
there existed for years, they are ready to meet all in a 
spirit of Christian kindness. 



126 T!he l^ennessee Hand-Book, 

The denominations represented in Tennessee are 
Eoman Catholic, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Metho- 
dist, Lutheran, Eeformed and Baptist ; a portion of the 
latter are Tunkers. Some of the Lutheran, Eeformed 
and Baptist ministers preach in the German language. 

13. Immigration and the Colored Population. 

The colored population, according to the census of 
1860, amounted to 283,019 ; of these about 22,000 only 
lived in East Tennessee. It is partly owing "to this 
fact that there is less temptation to idleness in East 
Tennessee, and that the great majority of the colored 
population are doing well. In Middle and West Ten- 
nessee, a considerable portion of them are only par- 
tially employed. They are passing through a tran- 
sition period, and as it may take considerable time 
before the relations between the employers and the 
laborers "become settled in a manner satisfactory to 
both, parties, the need of a good immigrant population 
is deeply and generally felt. I know of no cases where 
the colored peopl-e are in so disorganized a state as to 
make it unsafe to live amongst them. There are por- 
tions of the State where there is less of friendly feel- 
ing between the white and the colored population than 
in others, but they can be easily avoided. The influx 
of a white population into the State is likely, in a few 
years, to remove many of the dif&culties which now 
surround this question, and to act as a healthy stimu- 
lus on all classes of society.* 

* While in charge of six of the upper counties of East Tennes- 
.see as Agent of the Freedmen's Bureau, tlie freedmen made en- 
couraging progress in morality and intelligence, the two main 
pillars of Republican Government. 



Public Institutions — 'Titles — Government. 127 

14. Library. , 

The Tennessee State Library consists of 17; 000 
volumes, in which there are included 3,000 duplicates. 
12,000 of the 17,000 volumes are valuable. It is ex- 
pected that provision will be made by the General 
Assembly for the accommodation of readers. Books 
are lent out, under the discretion of the librarian, to 
those who are likely to be benefited by them. The 
present librarian is Dr. A. Gattinger, a gentleman 
distinguished as a physician as well as for his devotion 
to the science of botany. 

15. Public Institutions. 

There is in the city of Knoxville the Institution for 
the Deaf and Dumb, and near the city of Nashville the 
Institution for the Blind, and the Hospital for the 
Insane. In the city itself is, the Penitentiary. 

16. Titles. 

As there are many cases where sections of land have 
been fraudulently entered more than once, it is abso- 
lutely necessary that those who purchase land should 
take legal advice before they close the bargain. 

17. Government. 

Tennessee has a republican form of government, 
similar to that of the other States of the Union. Like 
the general' government at Washington, it is divided 
into three departments, legislative, executive, and 
judicial. 

The Legislative consists of a Senate and House of 
Eepresentatives, the members of which are elected 
every two years by the people. ' 



1-28 ^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book. 

The Executive Department consists of a Governor, 
Secretary of State, Treasurer, Comptroller, and Attor- 
ney-General. The Governor is elected by the people 
for a term of two years ; the Secretary of State by the 
joint ballot of the Senate and House of Kepresentatives 
for two years, and the other two executive of&cers in 
the same manner for two years. 

The Judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court, 
and such inferior courts as the Legislature may from 
time to time establish. The Supreme Court consists 
of three Judges, who reside in the three divisions of 
the State. The Inferior Courts, so called, are Courts 
of Chancery, Circuit Courts, County Courts, Justices' 
Courts. 

The Constitution of the State secures to every in- 
habitant equal protection before the law, and to the 
citizen by naturalization, equal rights and immunities 
with the citizen of native birth. European immigrants 
who have lived one year in the United States, and 
more than one year in the State of Tennessee, have 
the right of elective franchise, provided such persons 
have previously declared their intention to become 
citizens of the United States. 

18. The General Assembly and the State Board of 
Immigration. 

To appreciate the action of the General Assembly in 
creating the State Board of Immigration, a brief retro- 
spect may not be out of place. Before the war. Con- 
gress had deemed the subject of immigration worthy 
of their attention. They had passed an Act for the 
protection of immigrant vessels, and to secure the 



T!he State Board of Immigration. 129 

enforcement of tbese, anotlier wliicli antliorized the 
President of the United States to appoint a Commis- 
sioner of Immigration in connection with the State 
Department. By the same Act, there was placed in 
the city of New York a United States officer — the 
Superintendent of Immigration — who was to see to it 
that the Acts above mentioned were faithfully executed. 
The State of New York had also created a Board of 
Commissioners ; they had established an office in 
Castle Garden, in the city of New York, for the pur- 
pose, partly, of attending to the wants of those who 
wished to employ immigrants. Among the various 
benevolent societies in the city of New York, the 
Presidents of which are ex-officio members of the 
Board of Commissioners, the disinterested and influen- 
tial character of the German Society had acquired 
a well-deserved high reputation. The information 
obtained from these various sources served to stimulate 
a desire on the part of the Southern States to obtain a 
share of this immigrant population. 

Missouri, in the spring of 1865, entered on a course 
of action so wise and energetic, that thousands of 
imraigrants have come to that State, and have greatly 
increased her wealth and her prosperity. Virginia 
has sent two agents to Europe, and has appointed two 
others for her home work. West Yirginia has taken 
measures to hold out inducements to foreign immigra- 
tion. The Chamber of Commerce of Little Eock, in 
Arkansas, has offered its hearty co-operation to the 
Immigrant Aid Society of that city, in inducing immi- 
grants to settle in that State. Alabama is circulating 
an account of her resources, and South Carolina has 



I JO 'l^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book. 

appropriated §10,000, and bj a systematic course of 
action lias already obtained a considerable number of 
immigrants. His Excellency the Governor of this 
State and many prominent men in difierent parts of it. 
Lave for a long time felt that Tennessee would be 
highly benefited by having a portion of the current 
of immigration directed to her borders. Private efforts 
to attain this object were 'made in various parts of the 
StatC; with considerable success. But still the need 
was felt of a movement on the part of the State, by the 
means of which all these individual efforts would be 
seconded and made more efiicient. This want, in ac- 
cordance with the recommendation of his Excellency 
the Governor, has been supplied by the General 
Assembly, by the creation of a State Board. Having 
been elected Commissioner of Immigration by that 
Board, I beg leave to present to the reader, together 
with a copy of the Act referred to, a copy of the cir- 
cular addressed by the Board to the people of the 
North and _of Europe, and a brief statement which, 
under the direction of the State Board, I have ad- 
dressed to leading men in every county of the State. 
In the same measure as I receive special information 
with regard to the resources of the State, I shall cir- 
culate it as widely as possible. 

An Act to Encourage Immigration to Tennessee. 

Section 1. Be it enacted hy the General Assembly of 
'the State of Tennessee, That there shall be a Board of 
Immigration created, consisting of five members, three 
ol whom shall be appointed by the Governor. 



An Act to Encourage Immigration, 131 

Sect. 2. The Governor and the Secretary of State 
shall be ex-officio members of the Board, and it shall 
be its duty to do all and every thing .which may and 
will advance and encourage immigration to the State, 
either from other States or from Europe. 

Sect. 3. The Board shall cause to be published from 
time to time, in such manner as it may deem proper 
and advisable, pamphlets, essays, newspaper articles, 
and advertisements, descriptions of the developed and 
undeveloped resources of the State, agricultural and 
mineral, and setting forth such other facts and infor- 
mation as shall have a tendency to attract attention 
and encourage immigration to the State. It shall also 
have power to appoint an agent or agents for the 
Northern or Eastern States, or for Europe, for the 
purpose of advancing immigration; and such agent or 
agents to act under the instructions of such Board of 
Immigration, and shall receive such compensation for 
their services as said Board shall allow, to be paid out 
of any fund that may hereafter be created ; and the 
said Board may do any act and employ or adopt any 
agencies or appliances calculated or necessary to effect 
the purposes designed by this Act. 

Sect. 4. Meetings of the Board shall be held on the 
first Monday in November, February, May and August, 
at the Capitol, in Nashville, and at such other times 
and places as a majority of the Board may direct. 

Sect. 5. The Board at its first regular meeting shall 
elect a Secretary and a Treasurer, said ofl&cers to be 
elected from the members composing the Board. 

Sect. 6. The Board of Immigration is further author- 
ized and shall have power to open books and invite 



132 '^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book. 

and solicit contributions and endowments of money, 
from corporations, manufacturers, merchants and any 
other persons, which money, when contributed, shall 
be under the control of and be expended by the Board, 
for the intents and purposes in the preceding section 
stated. 

Sect. 7. It shall be the duty of said Board to co- 
operate with the Bureau of Immigration, at Washing- 
ton City, and to make regular reports of its labors and 
proceedings to the General Assembly of the State, 
accompanied by such references, suggestiotis and 
statistics as may furnish good and reliable data, and 
proper basis for future legislation on the subject of 
immigration. 

Sect. 8. Be it further enacted, That the sum of one 
thousand dollars annually is hereby appropriated out 
of any moneys in the Treasury of the State, not other- 
wise appropriated, for the use of the Board of Immi- 
gration, to be expended by said Board in such manner 
as they shall deem expedient and best to promote the 
objects contemplated by this Act. 

Address to the People of Tennessee. 

The Act " To Encourage Immigration to Tennessee" 
creates a State Board of Immigration. Of this board, 
his Excellency, the Governor, and the Honorable Sec- 
retary of State are members ex-of&cio. The other 
three members as appointed by his Excellency, the 
Governor, are the Hon. R. B. Cheatham, Dr. J. M. 
Kerchival and Gen. John Eaton, Jr. They have elected 
me, at their first meeting in December, as Commissioner 
of Immigration, and in accordance with a resolution 



Address to the People of 'Tennessee, 133 

passed at that meeting, I now beg leave to address tbe 
people of this State for the purpose of briefly making 
known to them the objects for which this Board has 
been created, and of asking their co-operation. 

In the second section of the Act referred to, it is 
made the duty of the Board in general terms " to en- 
courage immigration" either from the Northern or 
Eastern States of the United States or from Europe. 

In the third section of the same Act it is made the 
duty of the Board to publish, or cause to be published, 
pamphlets or articles, descriptive of the agricultural 
and mineral resources of the StaJ:e, of its water-power, 
timber, soil and climate, of its various railroad lines, 
its adaption to stock-raising, grape culture, and of 
whatever feature may be attractive to the immigrant. 

In the fourth section, power is given them to appoint 
an agent or agents either for the Northern and Eastern 
States of the United States or for Europe, for the pur- 
pose of advancing the interests of immigration. 

To accomplish these objects, the sum of one thou- 
sand dollars annually has been appropriated, and the 
Board is authorized to open books and solicit contri- 
butions and endowments of money from corporations, 
manufacturers, merchants and all persons who are 
directly or indirectly benefited by the increase of im- 
migration. 

In view of the duties thus imposed on the Board, 
the two fields to which its attention is principally 
directed are the* Eastern and Northern States of the 
United States, and Europe. 

As far as the Eastern and Northern States ai*e con- 
cerned, a highly valuable class of immigrants is already 

1 z 



134 ^^^ l^ennessee Hand-Book. 

settling in tMs State. From information received from 
these immigrants themselves, and from other sources; 
it is evident that there is an impression generally pre- 
vailing in the Eastern and Northern States of the 
United States, and also in part of the Western, that 
throughout this State there prevails a great want of 
security of life and of property. Steps will be taken 
without delay to have these misapprehensions removed. 

As for the course to be pursued with reference to 
immigration from Europe, the Board deem it of great 
importance that an agent should be appointed in the 
city of New York, and that every arrangement should 
be made that is likely to extend his usefulness. 

The Legislature has come to the aid of the Board, 
as far as the duty is concerned, to publish information 
concerning the resources of Tennessee, by purchasing 
2,000 copies of the work on this subject, now in press. 

While important results will be obtained by an 
agent, placed in the city of New York, it is still of 
vital importance to send, at ^s early a day as possible, 
an agent to Europe, and more especially to Germany 
and to Switzerland. This is the course pursued by 
the various companies and associations who have been 
eminently successful in transferring immigrants to 
exactly such localities as they are especially interested 
in. A similar course pursued by this State is likely 
to produce similar results. 

Whether with reference to the Northern and East- 
tern States or to Europe, it is of great importance that 
the agents employed should be furnished with minute 
information concerning the various localities in this 
State, which are likely to be attractive to immigrants. 



i 



Address to the People of Tennessee, 135 

In order to accomplish this, the Board proposes to ad- 
dress leading men in every county of the State, in 
order to submit to them a form of constitution which 
may guide them in the organization of auxiliary 
boards in each county respectively. 

The Board has also been authorized to solicit funds 
from those who are especially interested in the subject 
of immigration. In Missouri the State placed $2,000 
annually at the disposal of the State Board in 1865. 
In two years that amount, by private contributions, 
had been swelled to $10,000, and a large number of 
families had been brought to the State of Missouri by 
the agency of that Board. The Legislature of this 
State, by placing $1,000 at the disposal of this Board, 
and by expending another thousand for the purpose of 
purchasing 2,000 copies of the " Tennessee Hand-Book," 
has made a beginning similar to that of Missouri. Ad- 
ditional funds are required in order to attain the 
object for which this Board has been created, and 
which have been briefly presented in this address, and 
in accordance with the duty imposed on me by the 
Board, I now respectfully appeal to all corporations, 
manufacturing establishments, merchants and other in- • 
dividuals who may directly or indirectly be interested 
in the cause of immigration, and solicit from them 
such contributions as they may be able and willing to 
give, and which are to be expended by the Board for 
the purposes stated in the act referred to. 

Hermann" Bokum, 

Commissioner of Immigration for the State of Tennessee. 



136 '^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

Form of Constitution. 

The following form of constitution is submitted by 
the Board as a guide in the organization of auxiliary 
boards : 

1. This Association shall be known as the " Immi- 
grant. Association of the County of , for the pur- 
pose of Encouraging Immigration to the State of Ten- 
nessee." 

2. This Association shall be organized by the elec- 
tion of a President, Secretary and Treasurer, each of 
whom shall be re-elected from year to year. 

3. The object of this Association shall be to obtain, 
as far as possible, minute and accurate information 
concerning the resources of the county, by the circula- 
tion of which the proper inducements may be held 
out to immigrants. 

4. This Association shall, from time to time, com- 
municate such information to the State Board as will 
enable that Board to circulate the information thus 
communicated in this country and in Europe. 

Questions to he addressed to Associations or Individuals 
who are interested in the subject of Immigration. 

1. "What is the surface of the county? 

2. What is the formation — limestone ? 

3. What rivers and creeks — what water-power ? 

4. What grasses ? 
.5. What grains? 

6. How does tobacco succeed ? How cotton ? 

7. What about roots ? 



^estions to be Addressed to Associations, i^l 

8. What is the average product of the grains ? 

9. Does fruit succeed well ? 

10. How about the small fruits, such as strawberry? 

11. Is grape culture likely to succeed ? 

12. Is the county well adapted to stock-raising ? 

13. Are there minerals in the county? 

14. Is wood plenty ? What species ? 

15. How many acres of land are there ? 

16. How much in cultivation ? 

17. What the price ? 

18. Is there much land for sale ? 

19. Describe the land, size of tracts, etc. 

20. What wages of agricultural laborers ? 

21. What number of laborers could find employ- 
ment? 

22. What schools are established ? 

23. How many churches — what denominations rep- 
resented ? 

24. What papers — average circulation? 

25. What population of county ? 

26. What inducements would property-holders hold 
out? 



Address of the Board Organized by Law to Encourage Im- 
migration to the State of Tennessee. 

In addressing this circular to all who feel an interest 
in the prosperity of the State of Tennessee, whether 
they reside in Europe or in this country, the Board 
desire, in the first place, to draw attention to a brief 
description of the resources of the State. In doing so, 
they will refer successively to East, Middle, and West 



138 ^he 'Tennessee Hand-Booh 

Tennessee; the three sections into whidi the State is 
divided. 

East Tennessee abounds in mountains. On its 
eastern boundary it embraces a portion of the Alle- 
ghanies, on its western a portion of the Cumberland 
mountains. The mountains are rich in a great variety 
of minerals. It is also highly favored on account of 
its rivers and streams. The Holston, or Tennessee, 
runs through the centre of the valley of Bast Ten- 
nessee ; and as many of its tributaries are descending 
with great rapidity, they, in consequence of it, afford 
an abundance of water-power. Protected by the 
chains just referred to, and elevated nine hundred feet 
above the ocean, the valley of East Tennessee is 
favored with a delightful climate; the winters are 
short, yet invigorating ; the heat of the summer is 
moderated by the mountain breezes. The many 
streams which flow into the Holston, or Tennessee, 
have given the valley of East Tennessee a high repu- 
tation for its breadstuffs and its live stock ; it abounds 
in fruit, and from its mountain sides flow many per- 
ennial springs. Eich in water-power, in timber, and 
in breadstuffs, blessed with a pure and salubrious 
atmosphere, and easily accessible by railroads, East 
Tennessee affords many opportunities for the erection 
of manufactories. The city of Knoxville, in its central 
position, partakes largely of the spirit of enterprise for 
which East Tennessee is distinguished. 

Middle Tennessee includes a portion of the Cumber- 
land mountains, and an elevated region extending to 
the Tennessee river and to Kentucky ; by the latter, 



Address of the Board of Immigration. 139 

a depressed section of the country is enclosed, which 
has been called the "Basin." 

Embracing a portion of the mountainous region, and 
the richest limestone lands of the State, the resources 
of Middle Tennessee are remarkable for their diversity, 
not less than for their richness. In the regions of the 
Cumberland mountains, and of the highlands, it vies 
with the mineral wealth of East Tennessee, and with 
its adaptation for grazing, and for the growing of fruit. 
On account of the rapidity with which its rivers 
descend from the table land, it furnishes many oppor- 
tunities for the establishing of manufactories, while 
the basin, above mentioned, is so fertile a region that 
it has justly been called the "Garden of Tennessee." 
The city of Nashville, the capital of the State, is 
situated in this basin. 

West Tennessee embraces a portion of the elevated 
plateau which commences in Kentucky and terminates 
in Mississippi. It is situated between the Tennessee 
and Mississippi rivers, and has in general a mellow 
and highly productive soil. It is surpassed, hoAvever, 
in this respect by the cotton lands of the Mississippi 
river, where for centuries the rai-j^s have washed down 
the rich soil of the surrounding hills. These cotton 
lands, in their turn, are likely to be surpassed when- 
ever the luxuriant timber in the immediate vicinity, 
on the Mississippi river, to some extent, at least, shall 
be cleared away, and when the swamps of the Missis- 
sippi shall be made productive. The commerce of 
Memphis is greatly on the increase. It is situated on 
the Mississippi, and, by its elevated position, is with- 
out a rival for a long distance on either side, and on 



140 'The Tennessee Hand-Book. 

either bank of the river. In consequence of the abo- 
lition of slavery, the planters of West Tennessee are 
likely to devote themselves to the planting of wheat 
and corn, and to the raising of cattle, far more than 
they have done. The climate of West Tennessee is 
generally healthy ; it is only near the swamps of the 
Mississippi that fevers prevail. 

From the facts here presented, it is evident that 
Tennessee presents advantages which deserve general 
attention. Situated in the central part of the Union, 
Tennessee is able to produce all the cereals that grow 
in the North, and, with the exception of sugar cane, 
all the agricultural products growing in the South. 
Thanks to the mildness of its climate, to the very 
large portion of the year during which it is capable of 
production, to the extent of its railroad communica- 
tions, and to its superior inland navigation, the people 
of "Tennessee can take their products either North or 
South, while in the one case the cold, and in the other 
the heat, prevent their growth. 

It only remains to refer very briefly to the spirit 
which animates the people of Tennessee. Heretofore 
the State relied for its prosperity principally on a 
partial development of its agricultural resources. A 
new era has been ushered in. In consequence of the 
changes which have occurred, the way is opened for 
a harmonious development of all the resources of the 
State. Many opportunities are afibrded for the pur- 
chase of farms of any size, at moderate prices, and 
many peculiar advantages are held out to mechanics, 
manufacturers, and all others who in any way have it 
in their power to aid in developing the resources of 



Address of the Board of Immigration, 141 

the State. The unsettled condition of society con- 
nected with the war, and the injuries it wrought to 
our social condition, are passing away. It is acknowl- 
edged among all classes of intelligent citizens, that 
peace and prosperity depend upon the enforcement of 
the laws. The courts are open, and the administration 
of justice is assured in every county of the State. All 
necessities and interests are inspiring our citizens wdth 
greater industry and more careful attention to im- 
provements in implements and methods of farming, 
and in the introduction of manufactures and the en- 
couragement of those who come among them, and who 
desire to make their homes in Tennessee. To the 
realization of a brighter future for the State, the school 
law, which ha& been enacted, will also contribute. By 
the means of this law, every child in the State is to 
have free access to the schools. The Board, then, 
have no hesitation in inviting every industrious im- 
migrant to take up his abode in this State, in order to 
take part in developing its resources, and in advancing 
its prosperity. 

W. G. BROWNLOW, 

Governor, and ex-officio member of the Board. 

A. J. FLETCHER, 

Secretary of State, and ex-officio member of the Board. 

HOK R. B. CHEATHAM, 
JOHN EATON, JR., 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

J. M. KERCHIYAL, M. D., 
REY. HERMANN BOKUM, 

Commissioners of the Board. 



142 ^he 'Twenties see Hand-Book, 

19. statistical Summary for 1860. 

Live Stock owned in the State, 

Horses 290,8^2 

Asses and Mules 126,345 

Milcli Cows 249,514 

Work Oxen 102,158 

Other Cattle 413,000 

Sheep..... 773,317 

Swine ..2,347;821 

.Yalned at $60,211,425. 

Products of Animals, including Honey. 

Butter, pounds 10,017,787 

Cheese, pounds 135,575 

Wool, pounds 1,405,236 

Animals slaughtered 12,430,768 

Honey 1,519,390 

Cereal Crops in Bushels. 

Wheat 5,459,268 

Eje 257,989 

Indian Corn ; 52,089,926 

Oats 2,267,814 

Barley 25,144 

Buckwheat 14,481 

Commercial Crops. 

Rice, pounds 40,372 

Tobacco 43,448,097 

Cotton, bales 296,464 

Hops..... : 1^581 

Hemp'. 2,248 

Flax 164,294 



Statistical Summary for 1 8 60. 1 43 

Miscellaneous Crops. 

Peas and Beans 54:7;803 

Irish Potatoes 1,182,005 

Sweet Potatoes 2,604,672 

Wine, gallons 13,566 

Hay, tons 143,449 

Cloverseed, bushels... 8,572 

Grass Seed, bushels « 42,113 

Flax Seed, bushels 9,362 

Maple Sugar, pounds 115,620 

Maple Molasses, gallons 74,372 

Sorghum Molasses, gallons 70,663 

Statistics of General Industry, 

Mining, manufactures, mechanic arts, fisheries, etc. 

Kumber of Establishments 2,572 

Capital invested ...$14,426,261 

Cost of Raw Material 9,416,514 

Number of Males, employed 11,582 

Number of Females, employed.... 946 

Annual Value of Products 17,987,225 

Value of Principal Articles of Production. 

Flour and Meal $4,124,812 

Lumber, planed 88,000 

Lumber, sawed 2,199,703 

Leather , 1,142,246 

Iron Castings .-... 162,115 

Cotton Goods 698,122 

Printing, book, job, and newspaper. 443,120 
Iron, bar, boiler plate, etc 643,398 



144 ^^^ 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

Iron, pig $549,640 

Coal 423,662 

Copper Ore 404,000^ 

Woollen Goods 8,100 

Boots and Shoes.. 895,790 

Spirits 227,353 

Steam-Engines and Machinery 732,350 

Illuminating Gas 63,800 

Soap and Candies 44,000 

Agricultural Implements *.... 117,260 

Tahle of Improved and Unimproved Lands in the State 
of Tennessee, and their Value. 

Acres of Land Acres of Lard 
Improved in Farraa. Unimproved in Farms. 

Anderson 43,373 188,230 

Bedford 184,768. 92,458 

Benton 40,331 187,957 

Bledsoe 33,830 93,812 

Blount 99,866 199,8u0 

Bradley 79,972 124,555 

Campbell 33,789 100,556 

Cannon 59,127 94,946 

Carroll 95,827 180,432 

Carter 33,624 81,132 

Cheatham 88,758 110,855 

Claiborne 64,469 182,705 

Cocke 67,637 159,927 

Coffee 56,100 107,481 

Cumberland 13,921 164,005 

Davidson 132,763 116,084' 

Decatur 83,741 132,664 



I 



"Table of Improved and Unimproved Lands, 145 

Acres of Lan-i Acres of I.aiid 
Improved in Farms. Unimproved in Farms. 

DeKalb 50,424 122,453 

Dickson..... 55,301 231,657 

Dyer 45,152 98,375 

Fayette 184,624 176,914 

Fentress 34,846 280,626 

Franklin 85,317 150,775 

Gibson 121,509 ' 253,525 

Giles 190,238 189,249 

Grainger 79,108 124,067 

Greene 150,854 193,049 

Grundy 17,342 79,833 

Hamilton 67,628 187,271 

Hancock 37,409......... 79,709 

Hardeman 111,888 217,892 

Hardin 64,988......... 302,450 

Hawkins 98,921. 195,629 

Haywood 638,026.......... 214.484 

Henderson 97,450. 239,144 

Henry 118,299.......... 222,217 

Hickman..., 51,867.......... 215,179 

Humphreys 42,550.. 241,592 

Jackson 64,478.. 118,792 

Jefferson 111,405......... 148,321 

Johnson 25,641.......... 77,252 

Knox 114,390, ,.. 208,641 

Lauderdale.. 38,539 117,825 

Lawrence... 40,862 183,537 

Lewis 9,773 54,934 

Lincoln....... 203,640 192,643 

Macon 45,441. 119,909 

McMinn 108,339.... 169,109 

18 



146 ^he 'Tennessee Hand-Booh 



Acres of Land Acres of Land 

Improved in FarmB. Unimproved in Farms. 



MclSTairy 81,686 265,805 

Madison 160,401 206,772 

Marion 85,120 192,240 

Marshall 116,887 100,477 

Maury 208,347 256,575 

Meigs 87,816 79,460 

Monroe 109,722 288,968 

Montgomery 129,283 199,991 

Morgan 17,702 390,196 

Oberton... 60,498 185,038 

Overton 73,436 183,983 

Perry 28,510 115,018 

Polk 29,182 92,361 

Putnam 49,303 171,536 

Ehea 82,416 87,476 

Koane 95,944,.......; 270,814 

Robertson 128,443 156,925 

Eutberford 184,468......... 219,758 

Scott 18,409......... 140,140 

Sevier 60,938 187,568 

Sequatcbee 16,255 84,294 

Sbelby 134.430... 180,767 

Smitb 118,085 104,185 

Steward 41,956 185,589 

Sullivan 94,168 133,235 

Sumner 140,582 157,857 

Tipton 65,570 135,778 

Union 84,940........ 82,756 

Yan Buren 16,395 108,150 

Warren 73,537 206,078 

Wasbington 118,752 223,855 



Prices in Knoxruille — Grape Culture. i^j 

Acres of Land Acres of Land 

Improved in Farms. Unimproved in Farmg. 

Wayne 52,638 214,868 

Weakley 79,915 157,500 

White 61,817 108,887 

Williamson 172,246 191,030 

Wilson 214,884 120,471 



Total 6,795,337 ....13,873,828 

Cash value of farms, $271,358,985. 

20. Prices in Kuoxville, in January, 1868. 

. Wheat $2.00 

Flonr 6.50 

Cloverseed, per bushel 8.00 

Apples, per bushel, green 1.35 to $1.75 

" per pound, dried 6 to 7 cents 

Bacon, country hog, round.... 12 to 18 " 

Shotes, gross $5.00 to $6.00 

Beef, gross, per pound 2 to 3 cents 

Lard, in firkins 13 to 15 '' 

Corn, loose in wagons 60 " 

Corn, white, per bushel 60 to 65 " 

Corn Meal, per bushel 75 to 80 " 

Eggs.. 15 to 20 " 

Chickens 25 to 30 " 

21'. Grape Culture. 

*'The mountainous regions of Tennessee, Georgia, 
Arkansas, Texas and Alabama may perhaps rival and 
even surpass us in the future, but their inhabitants at 
the present are not of a clay of which grape-growers 



148. '^he l^ennessee Hand-Book, 

are formed." SucL are the not very complimentary 
terms in wMcli George Husman, a prominent wine- 
grower of Missouri, closes bis excellent work on tlie 
native grape, and the manufacturing of native wine. 
How far these words are founded on fact the experience 
of a few years is likely to show. I am disposed to 
think that the great change which has taken place in 
the economic condition of the people of Tennessee, 
and the mental activity which is one of the results of 
that change, are likely to disprove the prognostics of 
Mr. Ilusman. I am the more disposed to express this 
opinion since, in the course of my late travels, I have 
met, in every section of the State, with gentlemen of 
commanding influence who not only make the subject 
of grape culture a careful study, but who also apply 
their knowledge to experiments of more or less magni- 
tude. 

The culture of the grape is highly profitable. The 
fruit sells at from ten to fifteen cents per pound, and 
on railroads and steamboats can be readily sent to 
distant markets. Early in the year the vines have to 
be pruned in order to keep the sap within certain 
limits, and thus improve the character of the fruit. 
The branches thus cut off meet with a ready sale. If 
any cuttings remain unsold, they may be put into the 
ground, and at the expiration of a year they are roots 
which, if not needed by the owners, are generally in 
great demand. The sale of the wine made from the 
grape varies in accordance with its quality, but, with 
few exceptions, is highly remunerative. Mr. Husman 
states that one-third of an acre of the Concord grape, 
planted five years before, had produced in cuttings, 



Grape Culture, 149 

plants, layers and wine, the round sum of ten thousand 
dollars. 

Tennessee is highly adapted* to the culture of the 
grape. The climate of West Tennessee is rather moist, 
but there the Scuppermong and Delaware are known 
to succeed, and other species of grape will, no doubt, 
grow well there if fairly tried. 

The grape can often be cultivated in portions of 
land which do not admit of being cultivated in any 
other way, and in such cases a means of income is 
opened to the owner of the land which does not inter- 
fere with any of the other products of his farm. 

In regions where the peach crop readily suffers 
from late frosts, the grape also suffers, but even then 
a good year may make up abundantly for two or three 
which are not good. I planted in 1856 a vineyard in 
a low valley five miles from Knoxville. I lost two 
vintages in succession by frosts in April ; in the third 
year the vines bore so well that they made up for the 
losses of the two preceding years. The banks of 
rivers and hills of considerable elevation, where the 
peach crop generally succeeds, are most favorable for 
the culture of the grape. 

Much of the labor required in the vineyard is so 
light that it can be done by women and children as a 
source of amusement and delight. The culture of the 
grape requires therefore less hard labor than other 
agricultuml pursuits, and can be successfully carried 
on at less expense. 

The culture of the grape and the making of native 
wine, are favorable to the cause of temperance. Where 
this mild wine is made and habitually drank, the 



150 "J^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

people are more temperate than they are in countries 
where this is not the case. Those who are in perfect 
health do not need even so mild a stimulant as is fur- 
nished by these native wines ; but as a large portion of 
the people of the United States are accustomed to 
strong beverages, which act most injuriously on the 
mind, as well as on the body, it would be a great 
blessing if they could be induced to substitute for 
them mild and pure wines, which do not make the 
producers or those who purchase them intemperate; 
but which; on the contrary, make them far more sober 
and peaceful than those who import wines, or who 
make their intoxicating drinks by the means of the 
still. 

In cases of debility, the native wine occupies a place 
which cannot be filled by any other medicine. 

For the table of the Lord's Supper, now supplied 
generally with the most nauseous article, the wine- 
growers will supply a pure wine, and the church edi- 
fice which is now filled on such occasions with an 
atmosphere familiar to those who are accustomed to 
the bar-room, will be pervaded by the grateful aroma 
of the native grape. 

There is no reason why any one should be deterred 
from cultivating the grape, on account of his not being 
familiar with the subject. How to make a beginning 
he can be taught by those who sell him the cuttings or 
roots, in a few minutes, and then he has a whole year 
at his command before he is called upon to take the 
next step. 

As the wine-grower, after having planted his vines, 
has to wait till in the third year he begins to obtain 



^he 'Treatment of Immigrants, 151 

returns for Ms outlay, it would be advisable that those 
who have but little capital at their command should 
continue to depend for their support on their usual 
crops until their vineyards are fairly established. 

The grape vine winding gracefully around the cot- 
tage or the farm-house, surrounds it with an element of 
beauty and of taste of which our rural districts greatly 
stand in need. 

22. The Treatment of Immigrants. 

There was a time when there were those in Tennes- 
see, as in other Southern States, who imagined that 
immigrants could be satisfied with the food and the 
quarters slaves used to receive; but that time has 
passed. The laborers lately obtained through the in- 
strumentality of Commissioner Kapp, at Castle Garden 
in the city of New York, are well treated. A just 
and generous course pursued towards the immigrants, 
is the only sure way of securing them in large numbers 
and in the shortest possible time. 

23. Immigrant Routes of Travel. 

" The best route from New York to all points west 
and southwest which can be employed for the trans- 
portation of immigrants is perhaps that via Norfolk. 
There is substantially a daily line of steamers between 
New York and Norfolk, connecting thence continuously 
by rail with the railways of Tennessee. It has been 
agreed to transport immigrants at the rate of two 
cents per mile, estimating the distance between New 
York and Norfolk at 160 miles. At New York an 



152 27?^ 'Tennessee Hand-Book, 

agent, C. E. Evans, Esq., 187 GreenwicTi St., is author- 
ized to issue tickets at that rate."* 

Those who arrive at Baltimore may go to Parkers- 
burg, 383 miles, by rail, and then by steam to Nashville 
by the Ohio and Cumberland rivers ; if the latter has 
not sufficient depth, they can enter the Tennessee river 
at Paducah, go by steam to Johnsonsville and then 75 
miles by rail to Nashville. 

23. Now is the Time to Buy. 

There are various reasons why, for a year or two, 
there will be special opportunities in Tennessee for the 
purchase of land at exceedingly low prices. Owners 
of large tracts, after having lost their slaves, cannot 
work their lands profitably without hiring a very 
large amount of labor, and they therefore are com- 
pelled to offer a portion of their land for sale ; farms; 
mortgaged before or during the war, have to be dis- 
posed of at sheriff's sales ; others offer their lands for 
sale because from various reasons they have become 
dissatisfied, and still others want to find a purchaser 
because they have neglected to work their lands faith- 
fully, and want to go in search of some other tract 
where for a time at least they can pursue the same ex- 
haustive process with apparent impunity ; and in still 
other cases the railroad enterprises now set on foot 
will make lands valuable which are now offered at 
very cheap rates. 



* From a letter of the President of the Virginia and Tennessee 
Railroad Company, oflace at Lynchburg, Va. 



Immigration and the Press, 153 

24. Immigration and the Press. 

I gratefully acknowledge the kindness with w^hicli 
the Press of the State of Tennessee has seconded my 
efforts in behalf of immigration. 

The intimate relations which for years have existed 
between the editors of the Knoxville Whig, the Nash- 
ville Press and Times, the Joneshoro' Flag and the 
Memphis Post and myself have made the interest they 
have manifested in my labors peculiarly gratifying. 

I am indebted for important suggestions to the 
publications of Professor Waterhouse and the Hon. 
Fredrick Miinch, of Missouri, and to that of the Com- 
missioner for South Carolina. 

By C. C. Giers, Esq., Jesse French, Esq., and Captain 
Heydt, superintendent of the Capitol, I have been 
greatly aided in my labors. 

25. An Invitation. 
A contemporary* in referring to the central position 
of Tennessee, to its being surrounded by several of 
the largest States of the Union, and to its being shaped 
like some festive table, refers to the rich resources 
which are now beneath that table, and to the magnifi- 
cent feast that will be offered to the surrounding States 
whenever they are taken from under the table and 
placed upon it. I have pointed out some of these re- 
sources ; let those now especially who have waited for 
this information, not delay, but come and aid us in 
patting these resources to their proper uses. 

* Henry Watterson, Esq., political editor of the Republican 
Banner^ in an interesting and humorous description of an excur- 
sion to the Sewanee coal mines. 



154 ^he "Tennessee Hand-Booh 

Correction. 

The following statement by W. W. Powell, Esq., of 
Cumberland county, corrects the view presented on 
page 63 concerning the water-power of that county : 

" So far as regards the streams in this county, there 
is not one which can be relied upon to propel much 
machinery throughout the year ; there are, however, 
some two or three which afford power to a very limited 
extent during all the year. Kearly all of our larger 
streams become so nearly dry, particularly in a severe 
drought, as to scarcely afford running water. I regret 
that these statements are necessarily at variance with 
those which are made by Major Falconner in his rail- 
road report. I think the Major had not seen our 
streams in the dry season of the year, and therefore 
was himself deceived. As regards the small streams, a 
majority of them become at times dry^ at least so 
nearly so as not to afford running water. And so far 
as I can gather information from old residents of the 
Cumberland mountain, the same facts as regards water 
in this county are true of all the other counties. Of 
course this evil will increase as the county becomes 
settled and cleared of its forests ; but nature, in this 
case, while taking our surface water, compensates in 
part by placing in great abundance a large supply so 
near the surface that I doubt whether a tract of 100 
acres can be found in this county where a liberal 
supply cannot be found at a depth less than ten feet, 
and in many cases less than six feet. I mean not only 
a liberal but a living supply We have many springs 
which have never yet been known to become dry." 



APPENDIX. 



A YINDICATIOK OF OUE CEEDIT ABEOAD. 

Tlie following extracts are part of a statement made 
by Judge Watson, Agent of the State of Tennessee, 
while on a visit to the city of New York :* 

The important question for the bondholders now is, what 
security have I for the payment of the principal and interest of 
my bond ? The State debt proper is only about $4,000,000. The 
railroads and all their rolling stock are mortgaged to the State to 
secure the payment of bonds loaned. This mortgage, as bond- 
holders must know, enures to their benefit. For the payment of 
$29,000,000 of bonds, which will be the entire amount of bonds 
issued to the roads, including those that may be issued under the 
recent Act of the Legislature, the bondholders have, as security, 
roads which, when completed, will be nearly two thousand miles 
in leugth, and which will have cost and which will be worth fully 
$70,000,000. In addition to that, they have the whole resources 
of the State solemnly pledged to them. And what are the tax- 
able resources of the State ? On the 19th of December last, there 
were due the State for taxes $1,108,900. As all the real and 
personal estate of the taxpayer is responsible for his taxes, a 
large proportion of the above amount must certainly be paid. 
The present tax law, under which the taxes of 1868 will be levied, 
increases the tax fully fifty per cent. The receipts from all 
sources the past year, exclusive of interest paid by railroads, 
were '.^1,517,472. Add fifty per cent, to this, will make $2,276,209: 
To this should also be added' what may be collected from back 

* Copied from an issue of the Kepublican Banner. 

(155) 



156 l!he Tennessee Hand-Book, 

taxes. The expenditure of the State last year, exclusive of 
interest, was $939,404. Of this amount at least $344,670 were 
extraordinary expenses, and will not be incurred this year. This 
would make the State expenditures this year $654,433, which, 
deducted from her tax receipts, $2,276,208, would leave $1,621,775, 
a surplus amply sufficient to make up all possible short-comings 
of railroads in paying their interest, and leaving also a very large 
amount to be appropriated to the aid of her common schools, a 
system which she is just inaugurating, combining the best 
features of the systems of the Northern States. 

The army expenditures were larger in Tennessee than in any 
other State, and these expenditures enriched its citizens. The 
city of Nashville certainly came out of the war largely increased 
in population, and greatly advanced in wealth. Every thing was 
bought and sold for cash, consequently no debt was contracted 
at home or abroad, and, as evidence of this, we have no stop 
laws, and no serious attempt to pass any ; and we appeal to the 
merchants of New York as an evidence of the fact, that no mer- 
chants in any State pay more promptly than the merchants of 
Tenbessee. Her black -labor being formerly owned in small 
numbers, and many of them working side by side with their 
masters, labor is much less demoralized than in the more southern 
States, as is demonstrated by the abundance of the present crop. 
Her crops of wheat the last year were fair, and farmers obtained 
for it from $2 to $2.50 per bushel, a price wholly unprecedented 
in Tennessee. Her corn crop was a full one, and its surplus is 
now finding its way over the railways of New York to this city. 
Her crops of cotton have not been as large for years. Nashville 
has already received a larger number of bales than the average 
of entire years prior to this, and she will certainly receive an 
amount this year more than double her annual receipt before the 
war. Clarksville, about sixty miles below here, on the Cumber- 
land river, was one of the largest interior tobacco markets in 
the Union before the war ; the past year her receipts of tobacco 
in dollars and cents were greater than they have ever been at 
any former period. "^ 

In addition to her present productive wealth, she has vast 
resources yet untouched. She has valuable pine timber, larger 



Appendix, 157 

forests of cedar than any State in the Union. She has scattered 
all over her every kind of timber used in building in the mechanic 
arts, except rosewood and mahogany. She has beneath her soil 
every variety of minerals used in the mechanic arts, and all of it 
rich in quality and abundant in quantity, and she has a climate 
and soil capable of producing successfully every article of raw 
material used in manufacturing. 

And yet with all these vast resources, with her sound pecu- 
niary condition, her admirable system of railroads almost com- 
pleted, and her mercantile and financial honor untarnished, it is 
evident, from the price of her bonds, that fears exist that she 
will falter in paying the interest on her debt. Why should Ten- 
nessee be distrusted ? Before the close of the past year she 
placed her money with her legal agent in this city, amply suffi- 
cient to pay every dollar of her January interest. 



EXTEACT FEOM THE ADDEESS OF THE HOK 
O. P. TEMPLE. 

The very foundations of society in East Tennessee were laid 
in education and morality. In the year 1780,. or 1781, while 
this was still a wilderness, and a part of North Carolina a re- 
mote and ultra-montane province, as it were, the Rev. Samuel 
Doak established an academy of learning at Salem, in Washing- 
ton county, called M artin Academy, in honor of Governor Martin, 
of North Carolina, where he continued to teach with remarkable 
success for nearly forty years. On the eighth day of July, 1795, 
this academy was raised to the rank of a college, under the 
name of Washington College, "in honor of the illustrious Presi- 
dent of the United States," by an " Act of the Governor, Legis- 
lative Council, and House of Representatives of the territory of 
the United States of America south of the river Ohio." This 
academy was the first public institution of learning west of the 
Alleghanies or the Blue Ridge, and the first in the great Mis- 
sissippi valley, unless, indeed, there may have been one at that 
time in the then foreign territory of Louisiana. It was situated 
near the beautiful NoUychucky river, which flowed down from 

14 



158 ^he 'Tennessee Hand-BooL 

the Blue Eidge and the Smoky mountains, and swept on to the 
Tennessee. It was near the house of General John Sevier, after- 
wards Governor Sevier, a name ever dear to Tennesseans. It 
was located in the midst of a dense grove of primeval oaks, tall 
and wide-spreading, fit companions of the brave and great spirit 
of him who first moved among them. 

For the Rev. Samuel Doak was no ignorant adventurer who 
thus came into the wilderness to plant the standard of learning 
and religion. He was one of the brave, great men who go in 
advance of civilization and blaze out the paths and hew out the 
channels, along which meaner spirits afterwards follow. A 
graduate of Princeton College, under the presidency of Dr. 
Witherspoon, he was one of the ripest scholars of his day. 
Possessed of great power of intellect, and of an iron will, which 
nothing could move but duty, his success and inflaence among 
a new people were wonderful in moulding and shaping their 
opinions. Perhaps no man in the Southwest has ever exercised 
more influence, if so much, in his day and generation, as did this 
scholar and Christian divine. 

Dr. Samuel Doak was a patriot, as well as a scholar. It is re- 
ported by tradition that when Colonels Sevier and Shelby were 
calling on the hardy mountain men of Washington and Sullivan 
counties to go with them to meet the daring British partisan 
leader, Major Ferguson, who was then advancing into Western 
North Carolina, this brave teacher and divine called his students 
around him, made them a spirited speech, and urged all who 
were a))le to go with their brave neighbors to the relief of their 
kinsmen on the other side of the mountains. This incident, if 
true, proves that Dr. Doak was teaching in Washington county 
as early as 1780, for the battle of King's mountain was fought 
and won in October of that year. 

Washington College soon became very popular and widely 
known. Students flocked to this self-sustaining, unendowed 
institution from Southwest Yirginia, from North and South 
Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The character of 
the institution may be judged by the character and success of 
its alumni. • 

About twenty-five years ago, it was stated in some publication 



Appendix, 159 

of that day, that at that time there were twenty-eight governors, 
ex-governors, members of Congress, and judges who had received 
their education at Washington College. It was stated by the 
late John Blair, of Jonesboro', who was a graduate of this college, 
that at one time, during his membership in Congress, there were 
thirteen members of that body who were educated at this college. 

Among the distinguished divines who were educated there, may 
be mentioned Dr. John "W. Doak, James Witherspoon, Gideon 
Blackburn, James Gallaher, Samuel K. Nelson, Dr. John Y. 
Bovell, Dr. David Nelson, the gifted author of the " Cause and 
Cure of Infidelity," and, lastly, that brilliant and accomplished 
scholar and rhetorician, Dr. A. A. Doak, a grandson of Dr. 
Samuel Doak. Such an array of clerical talent can be presented 
by but few institutions, even in the older States. Their influ- 
ence, with that of other alumni of this college, helped to give 
tone to public sentiment throughout this State, and was widely 
felt throughout the adjoining States. 

In 1818, Dr. John W. Doak became president, and in 1821 he 
was succeeded by Dr. John Y. Bovell, both of whom were emi- 
nent scholars and divines. 

The character of the first board of trustees was in keeping 
with that of the first president. Among them may be mentioned 
Governor John Sevier, Judge Joseph Anderson, Gideon Black- 
burn, Hon. John Ehea, Hon. William Cocke, Landon Carter, 
and Governor Archibald Roane. 

Greenville College, situated in Greene county, about twenty 
miles southwest from Washington College, was chartered by the 
territorial Legislature on the third day of September, 1794, about 
ten months before Washington College. The Eev. Hezekiah 
Balch was its first president, as well as its founder, as appears 
by the act of its incorporation. From a part of his farm, lying 
three miles south of Greenville, he gave the land for its use, on 
which it was located. 

Dr. Balch was also a graduate of Princeton, and while very 
young he moved from Maryland, his native State, to Mechlen- 
burg county. North Carolina; and at a very early day he settled 
tit Greenville, and was the pastor of Mount Bethel Church, 
(Presbyterian,) until he conceived the idea of building up a col- 



i6o ^he 'Tennessee Hand-Book. 

lege there. He was a man of mucli force and originality of 
mind, and possessed great energy and resolution. 

About the year 1805, the Bev. Charles Coffin, D. D., a graduate 
of Harvard University, came out, by invitation of Dr. Balch, into 
East Tennessee, and soon thereafter became president of Green- 
ville College. He v^as a ripe scholar, and especially in helles 
lettres and as a linguist. Full of ardor and zeal in behalf of 
education, he soon returned to the North to solicit aid for this 
rising institution ; and during his trip he succeeded in securing, 
mostly in Massachusetts, a complete set of chemical and astro- 
nomical apparatus, and about six thousand volumes of books. 
Most of these books are still in the college library at Green- 
ville, and rare and curious old books they are. In the writings 
of President Jefferson, the fact is mentioned that the Eev. 
Charles Coffin had called on him, and had an interview in refer- 
ence to this 'college, and the cause of education in the Southwest. 
From this time this college entered on a career of great pros- 
perity, which* continued until about the year 1838. During the 
presidency of Drs. Balch and Coffin, many men of talents, and of 
subsequent distinction, were educated there. The alumni of this 
college, like those of Washington, became scattered over the 
South and West, and have filled many of the highest offices of 
the States and of the nation, from Senators in Congress down to 
that of members of the Legislature. To name them would re- 
quire too much space ; but the names of the Jarnigans, the An- 
dersons, the Leas, Judge Reese, Judge McKinney, Judges 
Lucky, Dillahunty, and the Caruthers, Speaker John White of 
Kentucky, and Governor Francis Pickens of South Carolina, 
are familiar to the public. At one time during the presidency 
of Dr. Balch, there were one hundred students at this college. 

Blount College, situated at Knoxville, (now East Tennessee 
University,) was also incorporated in September, 1794, by the 
same territorial Legislature that incorporated Greenville Col- 
lege. But whether before or after Greenville College, does not 
clearly appear, as there is no date to the act, as published. The 
Rev. Samuel Carrick was the first president of this college. 
About the year 1828, Dr. Coffin became president, and under 
his administration the University (for such it had now become) 



Appendix. i6l 

flourished in a -remarkable degree. For upwards of seventy 
years this institution has dptie her share in educating the youth 
of the Southwest ; and she too, like her sisters Washington and 
Greenville Colleges, has sent out hundreds of alumni, who have 
adorned the bench, the bar, the pulpit, and the legislative halls 
of the country. To-day this university is in a prosperous con- 
dition, with a liberal endowment, with an able corps of profes- 
sors, and with a large number of promising young men as stu- 
dents. 

Dr. Doak, Dr. Balch, and Dr. Coffin, and the Eev. Samuel 
Carrick, the four great pioneers of education in the Southwest, 
were all Presbyterian clergymen. 

Thus have I attempted to make good my declaration in the out- 
set, that in East Tennessee the foundations of society were laid in 
education and morality ; that here were the nurseries of learning 
at an early day, not only for this State, but for the Southwest; 
and that here was established the first public school, and possibly 
the first three west of the Alleghanies, and in the Mississippi 
valley. , 



COERESPONDENCE WITH ASSOCIATIONS 
AND INDIVIDUALS. 

Immediately after my receiving the appointment of Commis- 
sioner, I had to leave for the North. The following associations 
are now in correspondence with the State Board. On my return, 
I hope to visit every part of the State, and to encourage the 
forming of similar organizations : 

East Tennessee Association, Hon. S. I. W. Lucky, President ; 

C. Seymour, Esq., Secretary. 

Hon. 0. P. Temple, Hon. J. W. North, Eev. T. W. Humes, 

D. D., and Messrs. McGufiy and Seymour have been appointed 
to prepare a pamphlet giving the resources of East Tennessee 
in detail. 

Washington County Association, Hon. S. I. W. Lucky, Presi- 
dent, and Henry Kelly, Esq., Secretary. Committees are pre- 
paring a map of the county, and detailed statements. 



1 62 ^he Tennessee Hand- Book, 

Bradley County Association, P. M. Craigmiles, Esq., President, 
and R. G. Cross, Esq., Secretary. 

The Nashville Association, Hon. W. T. Prosser, President, 
and R. H. Thornberg, Esq., Secretary. 

Many interesting statements concerning their respective coun- 
ties have been received from individuals, and shall be faith- 
fully attended to. 



Appendix, 1 6^ 



THE CEEDIT OF THE STATE ONCE MOEE. 

The pamphlet from which I have published an extract on page 
155 did not reach me in time for the notice which it deserves, 
and which I propose now to give it. 

The main object of the writer is to meet the insinuation that 
the State has been guilty of aiding worthless roads. 

The Edgefield and Kentucky Kailroad, running to the Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee State line, now ends in the woods, and its 
interest has not been paid. The Kentucky road which was to 
meet it had not been completed before the war. The work on 
the Henderson and Nashville road is now rapidly pushed for- 
ward ; let it connect with the Edgefield and Kentucky Eailroad 
at the State line, and there will be almost an airline established 
between Nashville and Chicago, and the immense bituminous 
coalfields of Kentucky will be made accessible to Nashville. 
The completion of the road referred to will also greatly benefit 
the Memphis and Ohio, and the Memphis, Clarksville and Louis- 
ville roads, and secure the payment of the interest hereafter. 

The Nashville and Northwestern has but very recently been 
completed to the Mississippi, meeting on the opposite side the 
Iron Mountain Eailroad, being built from St. Louis to the western 
bank of the river. The means being furnished for its equipment, 
and the building a branch connecting it with roads leading to 
New Orleans and to Memphis, it has a future before it which 
certainly must enable it to pay its interest. 

The Knoxville and Kentucky road has paid its interest. It 
runs from Knoxville through the rich coalfields of East Ten- 
nessee, and is intended to meet at the Kentucky State line the 
Lebanon branch of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. It is 
now supplying Knoxville with coal, and transporting it to distant 
points in Georgia, (and now also to Memphis.) The coal traffic 
alone should pay the interest of its debt. 

Of the Knoxville and Charleston Railroad, nearly seventeen 
miles are completed; when finished that distance and equipped, 
it will owe the State $325,000. This road is to meet a road 
being built from Charleston in a direct line to Knoxville. 



1 64 , Appendix, 

The Nashville and Pacific Eailroad does not receive aid until 
its stockholders grade thirty miles of the road, and have it ready 
for the iron. This road is to run from Nashville to Knoxville. 
Its completion and the completion of the short branch of the 
NashviHe and Northwestern Railroad, above mentioned, will 
furnish almost an airline of railroad from Norfolk and Virginia 
through Nashville and Memphis to Little Rock. No one can 
doubt that this road in a few years will be extended to the 
Pacific. This road will run through the richest agricultural 
part of the United States, and will be free from ice and snow, 
and the shortest route from the Atlantic to the Pacific, New 
York will yet see the day when her shortest and best highway to 
the Pacific will be through the State of Tennessee and over her 
projected Nashville and Pacific Road ! . 

Other roads not here mentioned (with the exception of two 
small branch roads) have always paid their interest. 

After this description of the railroads of Tennessee, and a 
brief reference to the position which their completion will secure 
for Knoxville and Nashville and Memphis, the writer very justly 
asks whether Tennessee has not shown her wisdom in pledging 
herself to such a system of roads. The important questions 
which concern the bondholder more especially, the writer has 
answered ; his answer is found in the extract from his pamphlet 
on page 163. 

The Cincinnati and Cumberland Gap Railroad is now running 
twenty-five miles, with the grading completed twenty-five miles 
further, at which point it meets, at the North Carolina line, a 
road now building from Asheville. These two roads, when com- 
pleted, will give East Tennessee direct connection with the sea- 
board in the Southern Atlantic States, and thus render her 
system of railroads complete, and bring the products of her rich 
valleys to the nearest and best markets both North and South. 

I am gratified in finding that the conviction which the Hon. S. 
Watson exprv5sses, that the State of Tennessee will be faithful to 
her obligations, is shared by many of the prominent capitalists 
in the North ; they base their hopes on the past financial conduct 
of the State. 



^^1^30 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 645 946 8 







